


Eyes of Pain: Act 1

by PortoDioVilla



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Genjutsu is ninja noncon, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-03
Updated: 2017-05-22
Packaged: 2018-08-12 17:41:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 7
Words: 26,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7943368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PortoDioVilla/pseuds/PortoDioVilla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Itachi and Kakashi conspire to stop the Uchiha Coup and kill Danzo, but unexpected casualties leave Itachi half blind, furious, and on his way to becoming Hokage.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

_For the sake of my predecessors, and indeed the whole of Konohagakure, I have compiled and condensed all my published works into this manuscript, to be read only by the Hokage, whoever they may be. It is my hope that the information contained here, in addition to the works left by The Second Hokage, will suffice to guide and direct The Hokage in all matters related to the village. I make no claim to have the answer for every situation, and truthfully I too have made many mistakes, some even with full knowledge of the circumstances around me. Alas, such times and mistakes are a luxury, and one I hope...  
(Forward from The Third Hokage’s untitled document, hereafter referred to as 3rd Manuscript)_

Since Shisui’s death, Itachi had yearned everyday to return to that waterfall. As if being there, he could somehow pull Shisui back to him, or see that Shisui really had faked it, or find some clever solution and just fix everything. As if his presence there could stabilize the world, his clan, the village, the way he was now assigned to.  
Now Danzo and The Third were urging him to stop his clan’s reckless, power-hungry plotting by himself. To choose between the lives of his relatives, his mentors, his family, and the life of his brother, his only, younger brother. To forsake the love of the villagers, forsake Konoha entirely, and die a secret martyr, a missing-nin.  
There was no time left for to make ethical calculations; the coup was planned for tonight, the clan assembling at midnight and then beginning their sack of Konoha. Itachi would pick them off, one by one, the extended family around whom he’d grown up, for whom he felt deep compassion and love. He would spare only Sasuke, and hope that, someday, Sasuke would refuse to spare him, and his brother would be a hero, and stronger than Itachi too. He would develop the cursed eyes somehow, and use them to burn away Itachi for good. Better burnt than drowned after all.  
All that remained was to visit that waterfall. Probably the last time he’d ever be able to, once Konoha declared him a missing-nin, and clan killer. And yet...  
Itachi felt as if the path he was on somehow shifted. Shisui had died wanting to keep the clan alive, and he would be alive to effect that future if it hadn’t been for Danzo’s intervention. Danzo, who had used some hidden technique to escape Shisui’s sharingan, Danzo, who had been on the same squad as Shisui’s father, had fought alongside that sharingan hundreds of times, and who had been the only one to witness Kagami’s death, Danzo, leader of Root and overseer of their illegal undertakings. Who’s to say that Danzo didn’t just take a hint from Kakashi Hatake and decide to kill his comrade in cold-blood for his eyes? Shisui said Danzo was suspicious of his intentions, but maybe Danzo was just greedy for more of Shisui's unique bloodline?  
It doesn't matter. Fuck Danzo. Fuck that scheming, belligerent geezer. Itachi was not beholden to his will, and the whole of the Anbu knew that Danzo had taken it upon himself to kill dissenters just like Shisui without the Hokage’s express permission or knowledge. Why would Sasuke be spared, when Shisui so clearly wasn’t? What had Sarutobi done to protect the clan, to protect Shisui, that Danzo couldn’t repeal, subvert or ignore? These fucking old men and their politics had been tearing apart the Leaf for as long as Itachi had known it, and each was too proud to acknowledge their grievous mistakes.  
Fuck them. They were old, stubborn, and blind to the needs of the village. Itachi felt his eyes burning behind his mask, the Mangekyo responding to his hate, and tinging his vision with red clouds. He threw his Anbu mask to the ground and stood up from where he was sitting in the forest clearing. Without thinking, he let Amaterasu pour from his eyes across his field of vision, igniting the trees in his way as he strode forward.  
“The will of fire ends tonight. I will forge Konoha’s path. My own path.”

~~~

Itachi closed the door to Sarutobi’s office behind him, and took a seat in front of the Third’s desk. The Third was looking out across Konoha, pipe in hand, at the Uchiha compound, just barely visible at the outskirts of the village. The sun had set beneath the trees, and already darkness was moving across the village.  
“Is this room sealed, Hokage-sama?” Itachi asked, as The Third sighed and sat down across from him.  
“It is, Itachi,” Sarutobi said, sighing “The Hyuuga cannot see us, and the Second Hokage sealed the room so as to make it completely silent to the outside. We may freely, as we have, already, in this same room, discuss the coup.”  
“And what of Danzo?”  
Hiruzen seemed to grow impatient, “Itachi, he need not be here to discuss every detail. You know as well as I do that Danzo manages several-”  
“Can he hear us in here?” The Third paused at Itachi’s words, and for the first time since they’d begun speaking, looked him in the eyes.  
His mistake.  
“I have known Danzo to take liberties with the privacy of our ninja for the sake of the village, but in this room he has no influence. If you must know, I have added my own seals specifically to limit his interference here. Why do you ask this now, Itachi? Do you suspect Danzo will act against Sasuke, even still?”  
“No,Hokage-sama...Danzo...Danzo was responsible for Shisui’s death,” Itachi said, causing Sarutobi to recoil in surprise, “Danzo attacked him, and was able to resist Shisui’s Sharingan through some hidden technique, and then stole Shisui’s eye. I know you are disinclined to believe me, but before he committed suicide, Shisui gave me the other eye, as proof.” Itachi produced a scroll with the Uchiha emblem inscribed along it, and, opening the scroll, summoned a small, glowing cube of chakra. Concealed within that cube was an eye, poorly severed, and emblazoned with the red iris and three tomoe of the Sharingan.  
“Itachi this is...this is unprecedented. You accuse Danzo of...To think...” Sarutobi trailed off, eyes suddenly growing dreadfully dull, and looking past Itachi. He trembled a bit, and for a moment, Itachi sensed a weakness in him, a great hesitancy, a fear. But it was gone in a moment, and Sarutobi seemed to steel himself, standing, and moving to light his pipe.  
“As you well know, Itachi, Danzo and I were once teammates, along with The Second Hokage and Shisui’s father, Kagami Uchiha. We had been great friends, the 3 of us and The Second, and all loved the village greatly...but after Tobirama-sama sacrificed himself so we could escape, and appointed me Third Hokage, a rift began to form between the remnants of our team. While I stayed in Konoha to perform my duties as Hokage and train the Sannin, Danzo and Kagami chose instead to remain in the field as active shinobi.”  
“They were true ninja, those two, ninja of a different era than this, Itachi. No one knows the stories of their illustrious career, their daring battles, their bittersweet victories. They were heroes, and would have been revered if all their deeds were known. Yet they were not proud, they sought no glory. They fought only for the sake of the village, and to that end secrecy was paramount. Danzo of the Dark Wind. Kagami "The Silver Tongue." They were a menace and a blessing."  
"But they grew old, we all did. Eventually, during the Second Shinobi War, where the Sannin made their mark, both were badly injured and, according to Danzo, Kagami died before they could retreat to Konoha.”  
Here Sarutobi paused, as if weighing his words. His eyes flicked towards Itachi’s, and in them he seemed to find some confirmation, so continued, “Yet I know that they returned, along with Orochimaru and Tsunade while Jiraiya stayed in Ame. And Tsunade returned before Orochimaru, though they had been travelling together from that war-torn place. Tsunade was in the height of her power, if she encountered a wounded Kagami then surely...She wouldn't simply leave him to die...”  
Sarutobi trailed off. His pipe was empty and he had once again ambled to the wide windows of his office while speaking, though this time his gaze fell on the Hokage monument.  
“There was much I could have done, for both Danzo and Orochimaru, much that was obvious in hindsight. Much that is obvious now. While I stayed here, dithering, Jiraiya left the village in hopes that he could bring Orochimaru back. He has since given up on that hope. I let Danzo walk his own path, let him operate as he saw fit, hoping he would trust me again, open up to me...but it is obvious I must give up on that hope too.”  
“Itachi,” The Third Hokage turned to face him again, the weariness Itachi had noticed before gone, replaced with a conviction that Itachi had never seen from the old man, “As Third Hokage I have few regrets. I did everything I could to keep this village together, and if two shinobi evaded my supervision, then that is the price I paid for peace, and it is a price I would willingly pay again. But as Fifth Hokage, I have done little worthy of the title, fought less than was necessary, and let this village slip from unity and peace. This too, you know.”  
“Danzo has been desperate to see the Uchiha slaughtered, zealous in his pursuit of their demise. I suspect now that he intends to harvest their sharingan, like he stole Kagami’s, and harness them with Orochimaru’s help. This cannot be allowed to happen, and I will die before I see Danzo or Orochimaru sink their fangs any deeper into this village’s heart. Find Kakashi and Tenzo, and tell them what I have told you. They are trustworthy and loyal to me, and you will need help dealing with Root if we are to deal with Danzo. And mark my words, Itachi, Danzo will die tonight, by our hand, and by the time the sun has risen, you will be Hokage, and the village will finally know peace.”  
Itachi looked into Sarutobi’s eyes and nodded, shaking from fear, and, muttering, “Yes, Hokage-sama,” he left the room and shut the doors behind him. Replacing his Anbu mask, fumbling with the strap, it took Itachi several excruciating seconds to focus his chakra enough for even a simple body-flicker. The jutsu took him to a nearby rooftop, and several more put him well beyond the Hokage’s office and The Hokage, from which point he started into a sprint towards the forest.

~~~

It was only after he was safely within the dense forest on Konoha’s outskirts that he allowed himself to feel the profound exhaustion that had burgeoned inside him, and he collapsed to his knees, breathing heavily.  
Itachi still couldn’t believe how easy it had been.  
The chakra drain from using Shisui’s eye for so long had been sizeable, but seeing the immediacy and potency of its effect, Itachi was convinced he’d succeeded in spite of his inexperience with the jutsu. The control, the subtlety, the way it planted a conviction so as to seem totally self-inspired, it was incredible. The eye still burnt painfully from using it on The Third, but Itachi felt comfortable attributing that to nothing more than the recency of the transplant. And Kakashi was no medic-nin, after-all, even if he did have more experience than most with this particular procedure.  
There was the problem of what to do with Kakashi after he and Tenzo had finished eliminating the rest of the Root members. He certainly wasn’t going to actually let Kakashi be Hokage, regardless of what the Copy-Ninja thought. And would Tenzo take Kakashi’s side when Itachi did betray him? Almost certainly. Perhaps some degree of luck would be necessary.  
Itachi shook the musings from his head, and started towards the Anbu barracks to rest and recover for the few hours he had remaining. He sent the Kakashi and Tenzo a message through his Anbu Captain’s mask, and sent a different one affirming their cooperation to The Third Hokage, outlining where to meet up to ambush Danzo.  
Itachi felt a smile coming on and subdued it. Things had gone according to Kakashi's plan, but the fight against Danzo was still a huge unknown, and there would still be work to do after that too. Still, Itachi cautiously scheduled the smile for later that night, conditional on his success.  
The moon had risen over Konoha, and the Uchiha Coup was about to begin.


	2. Extra: Kakashi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Extra: Kakashi's POV. Timeline jumps from the end of last chapter's events to several hours before, then several after. Special chapters are not part of the main storyline, but instead offer a perspective on the goings on elsewhere in Konoha/The World.

_ The Uchiha name is of course synonymous with their clan’s kekkei genkai, the Sharingan. A discussion of the abilities of this powerful bloodline will follow shortly, but first a short diversion to discuss the transmission of this and other bloodlines, in other words, how an individual comes to develop such a power... _

_...And finally, there exist several anecdotes, and two confirmed instances, of one clan’s bloodline being surgically implanted in a shinobi from a different clan. Kakashi Hatake is our village’s living proof of the intriguing possibility, but in addition, the Mist shinobi Ao was observed stealing the Byakugan of a fallen Hyuuga during the Third Shinobi War. Ao’s abilities are not fully documented, him having been encountered only once in the field since then, but it appears he does have the full sensory abilities provided by the Byakugan, although the Hyuuga’s signature taijutsu was not observed. As for Kakashi Hatake, his reports to me have indicated that he does possess the jutsu-copying ability for which the Sharingan is famous, however he has been unable to produce their unique Genjutsu. In addition, he reports that his Mangekyo does not function like that of a typical Uchiha, nor any known to the village, instead possessing some sort of spatial warping ability. It goes without saying that Kakashi is a vital resource to the village, and should the Uchiha ever rebel, as they have threatened to for generations, his help will be instrumental. Still, there is an obvious discrepancy in power when comparing... _

_ (Excerpt from the 3rd Manuscript, The Uchiha, page 21) _

 

Two ninja arrived at the Konoha Memorial, just as the sun set beneath the horizon, and the shadows that had been looming ever higher broke their bonds and began to infiltrate the vanishing light of day.

After a few minutes of silence, what seemed to Kakashi like only seconds, and to Tenzo behind him like hours, their Anbu masks lit up with Itachi’s report.

A success.

Wasting no time, they mobilized, leaping into the forest, heading towards the first of many targets set to be eliminated tonight. 

Unbeknownst to the two Anbu ninja, the last of these targets was watching them, concealed perfectly within the forest but for the brilliant red of a single sharingan. After a moment’s hesitation, he followed them, slipping through the trees like he was at once one with them, and yet of a different plane entirely.

~~~

_ Some time earlier _

 

Kakashi stood across from the younger Anbu captain,  prepared to die. The Uchiha had always done their utmost to keep Kakashi ignorant of the clan’s inner workings, to reject him and Obito’s sharingan as thoroughly as possible. Kakashi knew the resentment they held towards them, and, if he did not know their specific intent for him, he knew at least that he didn’t know. That’s why when Itachi approached him he’d closed his right eye, prepared to rely on Obito’s sharingan to protect him from being immediately killed. Prepared to be utterly defeated anyway, against Itachi’s vastly superior eyes.

But what Itachi had asked of him...Either he was about to be killed by a shameless clankiller, or he would be killed for helping him. Regardless, he had little choice in the matter. He had seniority over Itachi, true, but Itachi was a prodigy, an anbu captain, and importantly, immune to the Sharingan. Well, maybe not to Obito’s Mangekyo, but Kakashi hesitated to stake the outcome of a fight on that minor advantage. Maybe if he teleported away one of Itachi’s eyes, and then he-

“Kakashi. I can see that you’re struggling with this decision,” Itachi’s voice jarred Kakashi out of his train of thought, “but I think if you would hear me out further, you may be better able to decide.” Kakashi remained tensed, fight or flight, but he noticed that Itachi was, outwardly at least, completely relaxed. From the glimpse Kakashi dared to take, he could see that Itachi had not even activated his Sharingan.

“Fine then. Continue,” Kakashi said curtly, not relaxing at all.

“Thank you,” Itachi replied, “As I’m sure you’re aware, the Uchiha clan despises you. In actuality, they have many times urged me to send you on the more dangerous missions, in hopes you will be killed in the field, though I have never granted their wishes. Whether you believe me about that is your prerogative, but I urge you to listen now, and believe now, because in this matter your life is truly in jeopardy.”

Kakashi expected to hear the threat, the condemnation, the blackmail, but let Itachi continue, “The Uchiha intends to instigate a coup, tonight, against the whole of the leaf. Believe me when I say they will not waste this opportunity to eliminate you, along with whoever opposes them.” 

Kakashi actually gasped, embarrassingly, and Itachi continued, “I had planned to send you away on the eve of this treason, as per The Third’s request, but circumstances have arisen such that I need you here, to help me.”

“I imagine that you, along with all of my clan, now suspect me of having killed Shisui. I see now that asking your help in transplanting his eye perhaps seemed like an admission of guilt, or even a threat. But the grim truth is that Shisui was betrayed, not by me, but by Danzo, who also robbed him of his other eye. Thus I request your help in transplanting this remaining eye, yes, but for the sake of combatting Danzo, who will surely employ Shisui’s eye against any who challenge him.”

Kakashi stood stunned. Danzo had always been especially vindictive towards him, malicious, but, it dawned on Kakashi, what he had felt most from the Root Director was...envy. But this minor corroboration hadn’t distracted Kakashi from the implication in Itachi’s request.

“You intend to kill Danzo then, don’t you, Itachi? You’re going to kill him, and then lead the clan to overthrow Konoha!” The chakra burst from Kakashi’s palm as an instant Chidori crackled into existence. This was his only chance, a surprise attack against the traitor.He rushed towards Itachi, preparing to dodge the expected fire jutsu, watching for the movement that would betray his intent-

And he was on the ground. He didn’t even see Itachi move.

“Your loyalty is admirable Kakashi, but your violence is misdirected. My intent is not to support the coup, but to stop it entirely. Originally, The Third and Danzo convinced me that nothing short of the complete massacre of the Uchiha would suffice, but I have since devised my own solution. I will convince my clan that Danzo knows of their plan and has deployed Root to undermine and obfuscate their efforts. Then while my clan digs Root from the village, I will kill Danzo myself.”

Kakashi rolled backwards onto his feet, but the fight had gone out of him. Still, the Leaf Ninja in him remained suspicious of treason.

“And what’s to stop another coup after that?”

“Honour. When Root has been revealed for what it is, the Uchiha will be regarded as heroes for opposing them, and given a place of trust again in the village. The Third will be distrustful, but he is shrewd, and grows weary of this conflict. He will see that we have proved our loyalty, and-”

“I’m going to have to cut you off there, Captain-san,” Kakashi said, dusting himself off and covering up Obito’s eye, “because that plan is completely awful.” 

The comment made Itachi bristle, though his surprise left Kakashi feeling smug. Itachi may be a prodigious shinobi, but he was as socially awkward as Ebito at his age, and as foolish as Gai. Still, the seed of an idea had been planted in Kakashi’s mind and despite his better judgment he decided to correct the young Uchiha’s idiocy.

“First of all,” he began, in a serious tone, “You cannot take on Danzo, let alone kill him. He may not look it, but I’ve seen him fight, and he’s a Kage-level talent, even without whatever tricks I’m sure are hiding up his sleeve.”

“Second, You and I know about Root, but hardly anyone else in the village does, and that privileged group of which we are a part does  _ not _ include the clan leaders you need to convince you did a favour,” Itachi seemed indignant, and moved to argue but Kakashi silenced him with an accusatory finger. The Anbu Captain shut his mouth, and Kakashi could see he was liable to pout, but he continued anyway.

“Finally, if you think the Third is anything but a crafty, heartless, shameless opportunist, then you are desperately wrong. You think he’s  _ kind? _ You’re going to need a hell of a lot to convince him- and by convince I mean blackmail- not to execute every Uchiha on the spot.”

Itachi was wide-eyed now, and Kakashi could actually see a bit of the still young Uchiha’s innocence slipping past the stoic mask he always wore. Kakashi felt a bit of validation that his experience was still worth something respect-wise, but more so he felt conflicted about even admonishing Itachi in the first-place. It felt good, that’s for sure, but if he had stayed his tongue instead, and gone along with Itachi’s ludicrous plan, what would have been the result? A lot of dead Uchihas, for starters, but more importantly, a weakened, bleeding Konoha.

The Leaf Shinobi in him felt more practically inclined. He liked the idea of a Konoha with no Uchiha, but a Konoha with no Uchiha was not a safe Konoha at all, even if they were a rebellious and petulant bunch. They were the Leaf’s main strategic asset, along with the Hyuuga, and in fact, what the hell? The Third had been willing to have them all killed? This was the Danzo-endorsed plan, to kill all the Uchiha? Did they forget about the 4 other villages who attacked them like, all the time? 

“So what then Kakashi?” Itachi interrupted his train of thought, “You refuse to help? I hope you know then that you’re implicit in the events of tonight, whatever ends up happening. You can add your legacy to that of Tobirama, Sarutobi, and Danzo as the ninja who destroyed the Uchiha. Farewell.” 

And then, as Itachi turned to leave, and almost as if in defiance, that ambitious seed was made to sprout in Kakashi’s mind. Seeing Itachi respond and defer to his authority, the seed had grown. Feeling the weight of the village and the Uchiha on his shoulders, the seed grew further still. And somehow, viscerally, physically, feeling Obito’s Sharingan, burning, throbbing, like it was stronger than any other, like Kakashi had somehow made it stronger himself, the seed burst from the ground, and from thought to plan to action.

“Stay, Itachi. I’ll help you. With Everything.”Itachi turned around, evidently surprised. Kakashi continued, “I’ll even help you take out Root and Danzo while we’re at it. Tenzo will gladly help me with that. But we’re going to need old Sarutobi’s help. And when his help...runs out?” Kakashi stood to his full height in front of the young Uchiha and looked down at him, his Sharingan blazing, “You’re going to make me Hokage.”

~~~

_ Near midnight _

 

Kakashi pulled his sword from the body lying at his feet as Tenzo bound the fallen Root agent with dry, bristling wood. Before they left the scene, Kakashi cast a quick Fireball no jutsu on the remains, which were quickly engulfed in flame. Tenzo then cast an Earth jutsu, entombing the pyre in the earth, leaving not a trace of the assassination behind.

“You’re sure that was the last one, Tenzo?” he asked, as they leapt into the trees and began heading towards the Uchiha compound. 

“No,” Tenzo said without a flicker of irony, “But it’s unusual for there to be more than forty operatives in the village at once. I know there’s a team currently near the Suna border, and one scouting in the mist, but, aside from Danzo’s personal guard, the only other operatives should be on deep-cover, solo missions away from The Leaf.”

“And how many are on the personal guard?”

“No more than ten.”

Kakashi almost asked if he was joking, but on reflection realized there was almost no chance of that. 

“Well, unless he’s got some kind of mutant sharingan wood-user with him, I have a feeling we’ll be ok.”

“As far as I’m aware, he does not. I am the only wood-user who survived Orochimaru’s experiments.”

Kakashi sighed, and they continued running in silence. No more jokes with Tenzo after tonight, he thought. The Hokage has no time for that.

They were silent for a while, until Tenzo spoke up.

“Kakashi,” he said, betraying the most unease and fear Kakashi had ever heard from him, which is to say, none, “what will I do when you become Hokage?”

What a baby. 

“What do you want to do?” Kakashi said, almost keeping the boredom from his voice.

Tenzo was silent for a moment.

“I think i’d like to...” he paused, exasperatingly, “I’d like to have my own orchard. And family.”

Kakashi rolled his eyes, but decided to indulge Tenzo anyway.

“You’ll have your orchard Tenzo. You deserve it.”

He grinned under his mask.

“We’re all getting what we deserve tonight.”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One possible route I considered in this chapter is Itachi forcing Kakashi to do the implant using the Mangekyo, or by otherwise controlling him. In the end, I decided against this, since Kakashi's self-discovered agreement felt more organic.  
> I realize that Kakashi in canon has never really shown an ambition to be Hokage, but I think it's justified here given his youth, the unique circumstances and [Word of God]Obito's sharingan being surprisingly influential for some reason.[/Word of God]  
> Not sure what Kakashi was doing during the coup in canon (and why his Sharingan was basically ignored during that time?) but I feel like I constructed an adequate excuse.  
> Chapter 2 coming soon.


	3. Chapter 2

The Senju clan have faded from their place of prominence among our village’s clans since the days of its inception, but their erstwhile partner, the second half of the Konoha’s two founding clans, the fearsome Uchiha, still live on. Although they make up only a fraction of the village’s shinobi population, to say nothing of the farmers and laymen, the Uchiha are by numbers the most populous clan in the village, surpassing even the Hyuuga. The importance of this statistic is revealed with the help of a second.   
The average clan in Konoha is composed of approximately 20% active shinobi at any given time, with that number rising to 30% when considering inactive or retired shinobi. The Hyuuga, for example, field a lower amount than most, just 15%, while my own clan, The Sarutobi, field 22%. The Uchiha clan fields close to 25% of its numbers as active Shinobi, and if the Uchiha Police Corps members are included in this calculation, then the Uchiha clan’s shinobi composition rises to 75%.   
The source of this huge discrepancy between the Uchiha clan and others can be traced to The Second Hokage’s institution of the Uchiha Police corps, but has also been propagated by an increasing reticence in the other Noble Clans to supply shinobi. For this reason, the Uchiha’s strength has risen disproportionately compared to other clans, and disrupted stability both domestically and internationally. The Fourth Raikage, for example, expressed...  
(Excerpt from the 3rd Manuscript, History of the Clans, page 4.)

 

The moon had almost completely risen in the night sky, just visible through the foliage around the Anbu Barracks. They were nearly deserted, as the city’s Anbu had been called out on an emergency mission by The Third Hokage to deal with “an identified threat, possibly linked to Orochimaru,” at the village’s northern wall.   
In other words, as far away as they could reasonably be sent from the Uchiha compound.  
Hung on the barracks’ wall, an Anbu Mask suddenly lit up with chakra. Itachi thought to stand up and check it, but, something otherwise compelled him, and instead he read it’s contents using only his Sharingan.  
Last known target eliminated.  
Heading to interception point.  
Mark is in place.  
5th  
Itachi could tell from the chakra signature that it was Kakashi, but the cheeky 5th at the end was firm proof. He took a moment to ready himself, then donned his Anbu mask and began running towards the location he, Kakashi, and the Third had agreed upon for the ambush, sending a “go” message to The Third Hokage as well.  
The Third Hokage. Sarutobi. Itachi had done a lot of thinking while resting in his bunk, and the conclusions at which he had arrived disturbed him. Kakashi’s perspective, elucidated during the painful process of the eye transplant, seemed to be that The Third Hokage was senile, useless, and cuckold to Danzo and the rest of the Council’s control.   
For example, one need look no farther than young Naruto. Kakashi had explained that Naruto had been made the vessel of the kyuubi, The Nine Tailed Fox, in essence making him the saviour of Konoha, even at the expense of his parent’s life. Naruto should have been regarded as a hero in the village, yet instead he was reviled simply because of the associations he conjured in the villagers’ minds. Kakashi was quick to list dozens of slights and mistreatments that villagers had perpetrated towards Naruto, all dutifully record by his ever present Anbu guard. And wise, kind Sarutobi, knowing of each and every recorded abuse, simply let the villagers do as they pleased. Let Naruto grow resentful, distrustful, emotionally damaged. Sarutobi’s plan to redeem the poor boy? To make Naruto a ninja.   
Itachi had almost scoffed at that notion, but the chakra scalpels in his eye socket dissuaded this outward reaction. His reaction upon reflection, however, was more of a burning hate than that. This was the man with whom he had planned to entrust Sasuke’s safety? This doddering, useless old man who couldn’t even protect The Fourth Hokage’s Son? Who planned to make him a ninja, as if that would somehow breed compassion in Naruto?  
Perhaps Sarutobi was simply feeble. Itachi, and most of his clan, chose to believe that narrative above The Sandaime’s outright malice. Yet feeble or evil, the Hokage had to go too. Naruto was but one example of The Third’s failure to protect his people, and the Uchiha were about to become another.   
Well not anymore. Itachi removed his Anbu mask, and after sending a “here” message to Kakashi and The Third, he threw the mask in front of him, then split it cleanly in two with his sword.  
He emerged from the canopy, and arrived on the long, secluded path to the Uchiha compound. Along with the Anbu barracks, and the Konoha prison, the Uchiha were segregated from the rest of Konoha by a good deal of forested road, an intentional choice by The Second Hokage to maintain control of the supposedly volatile clan.  
Itachi had done no more than walk into the center of the road before Danzo appeared in a gust of wind before him. From his face Itachi could tell that Danzo of The Black Wind, the leader of Root, the shameless murderer and thief, was furious.

~~~

 

“Itachi,” he growled, “Explain yourself.”  
Itachi drew his sword, as his Mangekyo flared into life, lighting his face with crimson intent. Danzo began forming seals immediately, but Itachi’s jutsu was instantaneous.   
“No,” the young Uchiha said, as flames, pitch-black, erupted from every point in his vision, and Danzo disappeared from sight.  
Itachi staggered at the sudden loss of chakra, and clasped a hand to his right eye. Shisui’s was unable to produce the Tsukuyomi apparently, so it seemed his right took the whole of the chakra load. Still, Shisui’s sharingan still functioned, and Itachi saw a leaf-shunshin being performed where Danzo stood. Itachi spun with his sword to counter the obvious attack from his blind-spot, but found no target behind him.   
Suddenly he felt a rush of wind from above, pre-empting some Wind Jutsu. His right hand still clutched to his face, Itachi swung his sword to block the attack as best he could, but saw that Danzo had been forced to abort the attack, thanks to the timely intervention of Sarutobi and a Fire Bullet jutsu.  
“Hiruzen!” Danzo shouted, completing the arc that had sent him above Itachi and landing behind him, as Sarutobi moved to Itachi’s flank, “You throw your lot in with this spineless Uchiha? Sentimental fool! The Uchiha will destroy the Leaf, and you will be responsible!”  
Itachi tore his hand from his eye, despite the lingering pain, and rushed in towards Danzo, cloaking himself in genjutsu, while The Third Hokage cast a Mud Wall Jutsu. Danzo would perceive Itachi standing still, and then Itachi would strike while he was distracted and trapped by The Third’s jutsu.  
But as walls of mud sprung up behind and beside Danzo, he either saw through the genjutsu or anticipated the trap, and with a flurry of seals he summoned a twister of water around him, propelling him up, past the barricades around him, and into the air.  
Itachi rushed forward regardless, his sharingan telegraphing Danzo’s jutsu, and so he threw his sword to where he projected Danzo’s trajectory would culminate. But something troubled him, something happening with his and Shisui’s sharingan, amidst the battle.   
Somehow, he was seeing more than just the jutsu Danzo cast as they fought. He saw something like a tree, like a branching path, like a map, that described the jutsu in detail. Whereas regularly his Sharingan’s jutsu-copying was basically subconscious, for some reason there was a very clear picture of the jutsu in Itachi’s head, and moreover, how it could be changed, improved, all of the jutsu’s possibilities at once.   
The depth was staggering, and once he’d acknowledged the process happening it overwhelmed his train of thought completely, growing in every conceivable conceptual direction, supplying chakra costs, bloodline interactions, effects within Izanagi-  
Wait, Izanagi? Itachi didn’t recognize the jutsu but for some reason his Sharingan was supplying him with information about it, and suddenly Itachi realized the seals he’d seen Danzo cast before being engulfed by Amaterasu were to activate Izanagi.  
“But what does it do?” Itachi mused, turning inward for a moment to try and analyze the jutsu more. The information spread out tantalizingly close, if only Itachi could focus on it, yet he was forced to dismiss the thought in the midst of the battle. His sword came within inches of piercing Danzo, but at the last moment, the Root leader channeled the remainder of his ascentive twister to deflect the sword completely. Without wasting a second he added a barrage of shuriken to the ensuing blast of wind, the churning air accelerating them to deadly speeds.   
“What do you fools hope to accomplish by killing me?” Danzo shouted, as The Third leapt in front of Itachi, blocking the shuriken with a spin of his staff, the summoned king Enma. Together Sarutobi and Itachi leapt to the tops of the mud walls adjacent to the one on which Danzo had landed, leaving the 3 of them all on even ground again.  
“If you hadn’t noticed,” Danzo said as he leapt into the air, narrowly avoiding the pair of grasping, earthen hands that burst from the mud wall beneath, “There’s a clan of treasonous Uchiha about to attack!”. Sarutobi grimaced at Danzo’s words, but Itachi ignored them, his focus again drawn to a blueprint for the jutsu The Third had just used, how one could sacrifice strength for speed if they changed the Boar Seal to Ram, how an additional Tiger seal would have increased the number of hands, how-  
“The coup will not proceed!” Hiruzen shouted, reminding Itachi of the fight at hand. Itachi cast a Grand Fireball Jutsu at the airborne Danzo while Sarutobi continued, ”Because Itachi will become Hokage, and lead his clan towards peace!”  
The fireball flew through the air, but as it passed over Danzo, Itachi saw a substitution jutsu take effect, and again he saw how a changed seal would help account for any size discrepancy, how one seal omitted would lead to changing places with the last object used for substitution, and endless more information too complicated to understand immediately.   
Yet he understood enough, and as Itachi tackled Hiruzen forwards off the mud wall, a monstrous torrent of water crashed into it from behind. The surging water tore away at the mud wall,dissolving it completely, but travelled no further, and Itachi and Sarutobi were able to land upright on the muddy mixture that remained, channeling chakra to prevent themselves from sinking into the mire.   
“I see,” said Danzo, once again standing on the ground, in the place Itachi had first attacked him, “You suddenly take the boy’s side, despite our agreement? Yet I know you lack the capacity for this betrayal...Shisui’s eye then. To think you would use your dead comrade’s eye so selfishly, Itachi. How unconventional.”  
“But not unexpected.”  
Itachi wasn’t prepared to see how Sarutobi would react to this development and so began the seals for a grand Fireball, seeing Danzo about to start another wind jutsu. However, as Itachi was about to cast the Fireball, the air was sucked from his lungs, and he suddenly found himself flying forward. His bizarrely informative sharingan helpfully supplied that Danzo had reversed a seal in the twister jutsu he’d used before to increase its suction ability, and also had imbued it with a 76% wind attribute compared to the previous 45%, and so on.  
Itachi flew through the air, along with the contents of the collapsed mudwall, but even as he flew towards Danzo, the older shinobi shunpoed to where Itachi had stood moments before, beside The Third Hokage. The Sandaime had wasted no time in casting another mudwall from the contents flying through the air to stop Itachi’s flight, but, his vision thus obstructed, he didn’t see Danzo disappear. Sarutobi saw Itachi get his footing on the mudwall, but before The Third could cast another jutsu, Danzo was in front of him, Shisui’s sharingan spinning wildly as the bandages that concealed it were pulled away.  
“Enough of this, Hiruzen,” Danzo said, as Shisui’s jutsu took hold, “You know as well as I that if the Uchiha are allowed to grow any more, coup or not, that the other villages will declare war. They fear the Uchiha more than we do.”  
“Danzo...” The Third Hokage said, as if waking from a dream. Suddenly his eyes widened, and he shouted, “NO!”  
Hiruzen tackled Danzo to the ground, a flaming sword passing through the air where his neck had been. They rolled to their feet, but before they could regroup Itachi was upon them, engaging them at infighting range. They were two against one, but he had the benefit of Sharingan, and a much younger body.  
The 3 fought brutally, Itachi wielding two flaming Kunai against The Third Hokage’s legendary Staff, Enma, and Danzo’s wind-sheathed Kunai. The staff was ineffective at such a close range, but Enma’s fangs, claws, and tail lashed out constantly, repelled only by the flames leaping from Itachi’s Kunai. Itachi’s form was flawless, and his speed let him leap in and out of the duo’s attacks almost effortlessly, but faced with two foes, despite his advantages, he was eventually pushed back.   
Danzo and Hiruzen fought persistently, with an old, forgotten sort of synchronization that only seemed to strengthen as the battle wore on. While Itachi relied increasingly on substitutions and shunpo to dodge their combinations, the pair were stalwart, conserving chakra and seeing through his feints. They began to get the upper hand, and, alternating attacks, pressed towards Itachi from both his flanks.  
Finally, overwhelmed, Itachi was forced to block both their attacks at once, but as his Kunai were flung from his hands, he activated his and Shisui’s Mangekyo Sharingan as well as his own, capturing both the ninja who stood before him.  
Danzo, on his right, fell screaming to his knees, as Itachi’s Tsukuyomi tore through the famously resilient Root leader. On his left, Hiruzen stood, paralyzed, being compelled to kill Danzo, kill Danzo, kill Danzo, and at once knowing that Itachi was trying to control him again with Shisui’s sharingan.   
Itachi trembled with the huge effort of channeling both jutsu at once, but still, he drew a Kunai from his weapons pouch, and threw it. It embedded itself noisily, directly into Danzo’s heart-  
Except-  
“Danzo...” The Third Hokage said, as if waking from a dream. Suddenly his eyes widened, but he stood trembling. Danzo turned at the last second, suddenly realizing his mistake, but-  
A sword spun past him, barely missing Danzo’s eyes, and severing The Third Hokage’s head. Danzo jumped back, but Sarutobi’s motionless body was scorched by the Grand Fireball Jutsu that passed through it. Danzo reacted instantly to split the fireball with a wind-sheathed kunai, but the ensuing blast nonetheless knocked him back.  
“I’m surprised,” said Itachi, a substitution switching him with Sarutobi’s charred body, “I didn’t think it would keep working despite your technique.”   
Danzo performed the seals for a Blade of Air jutsu, but Itachi merely sidestepped it and kicked Danzo deftly in the solar plexis. He felt bones break even as the impact sent him flying through the air.   
“I suppose it just comes down to whose Sharingan is better” Itachi said, shunpoing behind Danzo’s expected landing area and throwing him into the forest before he hit the ground.   
“We share Shisui’s of course, so a stalemate there.” he continued as Danzo’s body collided stiffly with an errant tree. He collapsed on the ground, coughing up blood, while Itachi, having picked up his sword from where it had landed, walked towards him, “But I think it’s fair to say that I understand the Uchiha’s jutsu better than you.”  
“That’s an incredible technique, though, I must admit,” Itachi said, now only a few feet from Danzo. The battered shinobi braced himself against the tree behind him, panting, broken-ribbed, facing Itachi, trying to push himself up, “but to lose a sharingan in the process? That’s too steep a price.”  
Itachi towered over Danzo, eyes blazing, and raised his sword to Danzo’s throat.  
“You used Kagami’s eyes against Shisui, and now against me. You have one left, and you wasted it convincing Hiruzen to fight with you. You should have convinced him to spare your life.”  
“Farewell, Danzo of the Dark Wind. You die alone, and reviled.”  
Itachi swung-  
Except-  
Danzo’s surroundings suddenly changed, and he found himself knelt on the ground. Shisui’s eye was closed, but still, his vision darted to his right, where he saw Hiruzen standing beside him, a pitiable look on his weathered face. Pity. Damn him, damn him, DAMN HIM. Danzo thought to snarl at the haughty bastard, but his attention was drawn more pressingly to his left, where a hand, crackling with lightning chakra, protruded from his chest.   
His vision began to fade to black, and with a spasm of pain, as the bloodied hand was wrenched from his body, he collapsed. His eyes were so tired. He’d used them all but up, but he was still here, where Itachi has used the Tsukuyomi. How? And...and wasn’t there something...something else?  
As he closed his eyes, he saw roots, growing out of the ground, expanding around him. He smiled, minutely, at the sight, but remembered, then, what he had left to do. Just as well, he felt himself losing control of the implant after having exhausted so much chakra. Better to release it now, and hope his sacrifice was enough.  
Despite everything, Danzo had know he would die like this someday, he’d known the minute his kunai had slid across Kagami’s throat. And even after everything, hadn’t Hiruzen trusted him, in the end?   
“Tobirama, Kagami, and now me,” he thought, at the end, “perhaps I will die a hero after all.”  
His last words, soft, rapid, decisive, were lost as he was engulfed by the roots.  
~~~~

Kakashi stood stepped back Danzo’s body, while at the same time Itachi swayed and began to fall, only to be caught by The Third Hokage.   
“A timely arrival, boys,” The Third said, grunting as he picked up the unconscious Uchiha, “It looks like Itachi here just about used up all his chakra on that Tsukuyomi. Surprising, given his usual talents, but since it freed me from Danzo’s control, I suppose I can’t complain.”  
Kakashi and Tenzo exchanged glances, but said nothing.   
Sarutobi laid Itachi against a tree, and then turned to the boys. “Now we don’t have any time to waste. The coup will start in a mere hour. We must bring Danzo’s body to the Uchiha, and show them that he was using Shisui’s sharingan to control them all along.”  
Tenzo turned quickly to look at the body while Kakashi, looked around nervously.  
“...Get on with it, boys,” The Hokage said, growing irritated, “Don’t make an old man like me do your work for you.”  
“Uh,” Kakashi began, “So you’re telling me...You’re not...I mean...Danzo didn’t control you, did he? That’s not how it works...”  
“Kakashi,” Hiruzen said impatiently, “Danzo had Shisui’s eye, this whole time...He managed to catch me with Shisui’s jutsu, and from then on, I was...Well, wait a moment...didn’t he say-”  
“HOKAGE-SAMA,” Tenzen shouted, cutting off The Hokage’s words, “SOMETHING IS-”  
He was unable to finish his sentence as an explosion of chakra flung him, Kakashi, and The Third into the forest.  
They stood slowly, struggling as an enormous chakra pressure bore down on them. In the clearing in front of them, wood was erupting from the ground around Danzo’s body, sprouting and expanding at an incredible, devastating rate. At the same time, it seemed as if the forest immediately around them was being drained, as the trees shrunk, growing in reverse.  
“It’s Hashirama’s chakra! This forest was his creation, thus his chakra still lingers” the Third shouted, as the three of them stood, braced against the colossal force, “But how is it being channelled like this? Danzo was no Senju, no one has had this power since Orochimaru”   
As The Third trailed off, looking with dawning horror at Tenzo, Kakashi’s eyes widened and he shouted, “Inside, Hokage-sama! There’s fire chakra growing inside too!”  
“My god-” Sarutobi said, before composing himself and shouting, “Tenzo you need to stop the growth of that behemoth at once!”  
“Hokage-sama I don’t know-”  
“There’s no time to doubt yourself Tenzo,” Sarutobi shouted, “This is The First Hokage’s greatest destructive technique, and if let run to completion it will destroy the whole of the village, not just the Uchiha compound.”  
“Hokage-sama it’s already begun, even if we stop the growth it will still detonate, won’t it?” Kakashi asked frantically  
“No, I will stop it,” The Hokage said solemnly, “It is clear to me that whatever Orochimaru did to grant you Hashirama’s Mokuton, Tenzo, he was able to impart upon Danzo as well. As Orochimaru’s mentor, and The Third Hokage, I must right this wrong, and protect the Leaf.”  
There was no more discussion. Kakashi shunpoed to Itachi’s unconscious body and transported them back to the relative safety of the forest. Tenzo sent his own Mokuton jutsu into the ever growing behemoth before him, and began channeling the chakra into the surrounding forest. The behemoth stopped growing, but every point along its surface was still pulsating, about to explode.  
Hiruzen completed a long set of seals, and, placing his hands directly on the Mokuton mountain, a sudden chill overcame the mounting pressure.  
“Kakashi, Tenzo,” Hiruzen said, not looking back, "I entrust my will of fire to you, and my burden. Do not let the Uchiha, and their Eyes of Pain, overtake this village.”  
There was a dampening, a darkening, a dying of chakra.  
There was dreadful silence.  
Then Sarutobi Hiruzen, The Professor, The Third Hokage, fell to the ground.   
“WROOOOOOAR”, Shouted tenzo as the behemoth he was channeling slowly began to fall in upon itself, withdrawing at an incredible rate. Then, in an instant, it disappeared, a shockwave of intense, serene, beautiful chakra travelling outward from the where the towering jutsu once stood. It passed through the ninja there, invigorating them, and continued out for almost a mile across the now barren area, and where it passed, grass, and wildflowers sprouted gently.  
Kakasa felt the chakra he’d spent that night replenish, and his body, aching and tired, felt suddenly light, relieved. He saw Itachi stir as the chakra passed through him, but the effect on them was nothing compared to what Tenzo seemed to experience. Chakra practically radiated from his, and as Kakashi watched it condensed, mixed, joined with Tenzo’s own chakra, shoots and flowers, grass and greenery bubbling around the young Anbu members feet. It seemed like that huge chakra was going to tear Tenzo apart, but he was able to channel it, stabilize it, and pull it into himself. He looked at Kakashi, awe on his face, and Kakashi grinned at the raw power he sensed coming from his friend.   
But Tenzo’s eyes suddenly grew wide, and as he fell into a combat stance, Kakashi whipped around to see what had startled the boy.  
And he saw, across the road and looming over Danzo’s body, a masked man being pulled from some other plane, his body swirling, and coalescing around the burning crimson of a single, startlingly familiar Sharingan.   
Without thinking Kakashi shunpoed to the masked man, his blade drawn and already swinging, but the crackling metal passed harmlessly through the intruder’s incorporeal body. As soon as the blade was clear of his body the masked man attack, stabbing with his right arm as sharp, piercing roots emerged from it. Kakashi leapt clear of the arm, and Tenzo’s own Mokuton burst from the ground, faster than Kakashi had even seen it to block the roots. Yet even as the wall of roots appeared before them, the masked man continued to pass through it, and as his head emerged Kakashi was startled to see the hate, the horrible, burning hate emanating from the masked man’s sharingan. Obito’s Sharingan.

Slowly, Itachi opened his eye, now blinded, and Shisui’s. Thankfully, the latter was still intact, despite how much he’d been forced to use it to keep Sarutobi on his side. Through clouded vision he saw Kakashi and Tenzo fighting with, as best as Itachi could tell, Uchiha Madara.  
His vision wasn’t particularly clear.  
Itachi grimaced, and retrieved his remaining eye from its chakra-cube. With Kakashi and Tenzo occupied, it looked like he was on his own. He summoned a Kage Bunshin, grimacing as his already depleted chakra reserves felt the jutsu’s cost, and handed it one of his kunai.  
He’d need to manage without Kakashi soon anyway, so might as well start practicing now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Will post an explanation of Danzo's Izanagi usage later. Stay tuned!


	4. Chapter 3

Thunderous blows shook the newly formed clearing on Konoha’s outskirts as Kakashi and Tenzo faced off with the masked man. And his Sharingan. And his Mokuton. Itachi would have rolled his eyes at the obvious Mary Sue if he wasn’t so worried about the effect it might have during surgery. Something had roused him from his chakra exhaustion, and seemingly also cleared all the trees in the area? What the hell?  
Luckily, whatever had awoken him had imparted some chakra as well, and so he was able to make a feeble Kage Bunshin to help with the delicate process of implanting his Sharingan. Surprisingly, however, seeing his own face as his doppelganger carved out his now blinded Sharingan was in no way comforting. At least he could trust himself to do good work.  
“GAAAAHHH,” he screamed as his clone’s Kunai slipped, cutting a jagged line across his face, “Can you please operate with more care?”  
“Don’t blame me,” his clone replied, with more sass than Itachi remembered imbuing in it, “You made me pretty weak, not to mention we’re blind in one eye.”  
“You’re right,” Itachi replied, “I’m sorry, clone.”  
“Hn,” the clone said gruffly, returning to his work.   
“Do I really say ‘Hn?’” Itachi thought to himself, in an effort to ignore the pain that wracked his body, “I hope that’s a Uchiha thing and not just me. That’s unsightly. Unsoundly?”  
More shooting pain. His clone obstructed his view of the battle, partially by blocking it and partially by removing one of his eyes, but, even without the ability to supervise, he felt confident in the Leaf duo’s abilities. Tenzo in particular had seemed ridiculously powered-up somehow, from the brief glimpses Itachi had managed. Maybe from some jutsu The Sandaime had performed? Where was he anyway?  
Oh. The Hokage had died somehow.  
Itachi could see The Third’s body lying on the ground ahead of him. There was no blood, and he’d been alive before Itachi passed out, but apparently he’d died too? Itachi felt as if he’d missed something important. Something to ask Kakashi about. Or more likely Tenzo, after he killed Kakashi. That disquieting uncertainty remained.  
Still, all things considered, the night’s events had so far been a success. The fight against Danzo had gone much more smoothly than Itachi had expected. He was surprised to find that Danzo could use Shisui’s Sharingan to revert its prior effects on The Third, but it seemed like he lacked the knowledge of the technique that Itachi’s Sharingan combination- his Jutsu Path- provided.  
In fact, it had proven to be a rather unexpected boon during the fight. Ordinarily Itachi would have had no guarantee nor intuition that Tsukuyomi would linger during Izanagi, but as soon as Danzo started channeling the chakra necessary for the jutsu, Itachi’s Sharingan alerted him of Danzo’s intended destination in time, and from there Itachi’s plan to victory formed effortlessly.   
Indeed, it was a huge chakra drain, especially coupled with the chakra needed to subdue Sarutobi at the same time, but after Danzo wasted his Izanagi for the first time in Itachi’s Tsukuyomi, it became obvious that Itachi could convince him to use it again, and kill him after that. Logic dictated that Danzo only had Kagami’s two Sharingan in addition to Shisui’s one, one of which was useless anyway, having been used earlier to subdue Shisui.   
Had Itachi been forced to draw out yet Izanagi, he may not have survived the chakra expenditure necessary. It was a stroke of good fortune that Kakashi and Tenzo had arrived in time to deal the final blow. Speaking of which...  
“Oi, clone,” Itachi said, as his clone tried meekly to overcome the depth-perception challenge that was fitting a sphere into a round hole, “What’s going on with Kakashi and Tenzo’s fight?”  
The clone looked back for a minute, while Itachi heard sounds of explosions, shouts, and various deadly sounding lightning, fire, and Mokuton techniques being invoked.  
“Well?” Itachi asked again, “Are they winning?”  
“I’d say it’s about even,” the clone replied, turning back, “But I think we have a more pressing matter at hand.”  
“And that is?”  
“Well Danzo took Shisui’s right eye, and you took Shisui’s left, right?”  
“Yes, good recall. So?”  
“Well naturally you replaced your own left eye for Shisui’s, I also seem to recall.”  
“Yes, that’s correct. So-...Oh.”  
“Yeah. All I have here is your other left eye, and your useless, blinded right eye.”  
“That is worrisome. Yes, that’s a real problem. Shit. Maybe if you put Shisui’s eye and in my right eye socket, and my left back in the left, Shisui’s will become an Eternal Mangekyo, and it won’t matter that I have two lefts?  
“No, I think it’s gotta match the one that went blind in the first place.”  
“I suppose I knew that. I was just trying to be hopeful,” Itachi sighed, “And because my own left eye wasn’t blind before I replaced it, Shisui’s didn’t become Eternal. Hn.”  
“Hn!”  
“Okay that’s enough,” Itachi took the eye from his clone and dispelled it, refunding some of the chakra. He replaced his eye, wincing a little, and stood up. His vision seemed normal, and a brief activation of his Sharingan confirmed that his Jutsu Path still functioned.  
“Alright then,” Itachi said, striding into the battle before him, “Let’s wrap this up.”

~~~

Itachi arrived to find that what had been dense forest, and, for a few moments, a barren clearing, had once again grown thick with trees and foliage, at least around where the 3 Ninja were fighting.   
The masked ninja was wielding both Mokuton and fire jutsu at once, harrying Kakashi with sudden bursts of roots or wooden spikes, while sending bursts of flame ceaselessly in Tenzo’s direction. He was outmatched pound for pound by Kakashi’s taijutsu, and could only devote half his time to Tenzo, but thanks to some strange ability to become intangible, the Leaf duo were unable to truly create an advantage, and they were tiring.  
Itachi looked at the scene with mild disgust, but, more so, overwhelming weariness. Leaping to Tenzo’s side he activated his Sharingan and consulted his Jutsu Path. Tenzo began explaining, very summarily, what had transpired since he’d passed out, but Itachi wasn’t really listening, choosing instead to focus on the battle. He could see that every time their adversary went intangible, Kakashi’s Sharingan would respond. With a little more investigation, Itachi was shocked to find that Kakashi’s Sharingan was the exact same as his adversary’s.   
But despite this parity, Kakashi seemed unable to use the technique upon which his opponent so heavily relied. This seemed strange to Itachi, given that Kakashi had confessed to having the Mangekyo sharingan, albeit a special version, and had used its abilities more than once in the field. Why the hesitance to use it now, and secure an easy victory?  
Yet even more surprising than the pair of Sharingans was the masked man’s use of Mokuton techniques. As far as Itachi could see, he wasn’t actually responsible for their use, rather, some chakra growth on him was controlling and supplying the jutsu. In fact, Itachi’s Jutsu Path informed him that Danzo had had a similar ability, though apparently his Mokuton more closely resembled Tenzo’s. Was Orochimaru responsible for that as well? Was he the sponsor of this masked man too?  
All this information was processed quickly, despite Itachi’s fatigue, and so as Kakashi parried an incoming wooden spike and leapt back, Itachi shunpoed to his side.  
“Kakashi,” Itachi said, causing the Copy Ninja to look in his direction.  
“It’s time to end this,” he said bluntly, a trickle of blood making its way down his cheek “Next time he tries to become intangible use your Mangekyo on him.”  
“What? But I-” Kakashi began to protest before his eyes widened in sudden realization. He tried to speak, as the muscles around his eyes tensed spastically, but he couldn’t form any words, nor look away from the young Uchiha’s ‘s gaze.  
“Perhaps you haven’t noticed, but he has the same Sharingan as you and, thus your former teammate,” Kakashi began to shake, his body protesting, tears flowing freely from his eyes, but he couldn’t look away, couldn’t stop hearing the young Uchiha, agreeing with him, doing what was right, “You may lack the intuition that is normally granted by the Sharingan, Kakashi, but I do not. Do as I say and you will defeat him easily.”  
“Obito...” Kakashi forced out. He was longed to say something more, to beg, but a sudden burst of wooden spikes from their feet forced him and Itachi to leap away.  
“There!” Tenzo shouted from the other side of the clearing, “2 o’clock, Kakashi!”   
The masked man leapt towards him, becoming intangible again as he passed harmlessly through Tenzo’s Mokuton. Kakashi turned, his hands flying through the seals for the Lightning blade. He raised his arm to intercept the oncoming foe, but he was a fraction of a second too late. He stood, rooted in place as a hardened, Mokuton blade protruded from his back, passing through his chest and originating from the masked man’s arm.   
“I’m sorry,” Kakashi whispered, the steady stream of tears falling from his eyes mixing with the trickle of blood coming from his left. The masked man’s only visible eye, his Sharingan widened, and he shouted something, but his voice was cut off as Kakashi’s lightning blade passed through his throat.  
The two began to fall to the ground, but their descent was marred by the sudden eruption of black flames all around them.   
“KAKASHI!” Tenzo screamed leaping down from one of the Mokuton sculptures that littered the battlefield and running desperately towards the pyre. The two fallen ninja were consumed completely by the flames, but before Tenzo was able to get to them Itachi had appeared beside him and held him back.  
“Tenzo we have more important matters to attend to. The Hokage is dead. My clan is about to engage in a coup. We’ll have time to mourn later. For now, you need to recall all the ANBU that were sent out and tell them that their intel was wrong, that Orochimaru’s creation attacked us outside the Uchiha compound.”  
Tenzo fought against Itachi’s grip, eyes streaming with tears, but Itachi wouldn’t let go until Tenzo finally screamed out, “Fine! Damn you, Itachi, FINE! I’ll go!” and as Itachi released his grip, Tenzo shunpoed away, towards the other side of the village, replacing his ANBU mask, and hiding his face.  
When he was finally out of sight, Itachi let out a huge sigh of relief, wincing as Shisui’s eye punished him for its usage. He was going to die of chakra exhaustion if he didn’t rest, and soon.  
“I suppose shunpo is off the table then,” he thought to himself, as he climbed down from the Mokuton forest that the last fight had birthed and began the long walk to the Uchiha compound.

~~~

He hadn’t walked far, when he encountered two Uchiha scouts, in full battle gear, headed towards him. Seeing him, they slowed their approach, entering into a defensive formation. They remained on guard until they saw his face, at which point their own lit up with shock, and they rushed to his aide.   
“Itachi!” one of them shouted, steadying the young Uchiha, “Where were you? We thought you’d defected, that you’d betrayed us.”  
“Stop,” Itachi said, quickly running out of energy and feeling the true extent of his chakra usage.“Stop the coup. Call it off.”  
“What? Why? Itachi-”  
“The Hokage is dead. He died protecting the village from...from Orochimaru, and Kakashi,” The scouts recoiled in shock, but Itachi continued, “The whole of ANBU is descending on the compound right now to deal with the threat. But it’s gone, The Hokage sacrificed himself to stop it. And...”  
Itachi looked up into the scout’s eyes, Sharingan in to Sharingan, “he named me as his successor.”  
As blood trickled down the wounds on his face and his eyes, Itachi collapsed for the second time that night, and the world around him faded into nothingness.

~~~

Itachi awoke to the familiar ceiling of his room in the Uchiha compound. Sun dappled his room, signaling the early morning, and, though he lacked the strength to sit up immediately and see, Itachi could hear the soft sound of his brother, Sasuke, asleep in the chair beside his bed. Hearing his brother was reassuring, but paled in comparison to the incredible revelation that Itachi wasn’t blind! He’d used and used and used Shisui’s eye, on Hiruzen, on Kakashi, and even on that Uchiha he’d met and it was still functional! Not blind!  
Still, Itachi felt vaguely worried that he was celebrating too soon, and so, as a precaution, he activated his Sharingan. Still functional it seemed, even with two left eyes. Shisui’s felt...tired, perhaps damaged, compared to his own, but that was to be expected after such extended use. He could still use it in an emergency, if it came down it.  
Confident in the safety of his eyes, Itachi undertook the effort necessary to sit up in bed. His muscles ached from chakra exhaustion, and his arms especially felt lifeless after the extended melee against Danzo and The Third, but they still worked too, and soon enough Itachi was upright.   
He took in the familiar sight of his room, and Sasuke’s soundly sleeping form, but his eyes were drawn to the mirror on his door. He leaned forward, still couldn’t see, grunted and shifted forward onto his knees, looked into the now eye-level mirror and-  
An explosion of information. Itachi almost passed out, but after shaking his head to dispel the oversaturated thoughts, he remembered the crucial development of his fight the other night, the Jutsu Path that sprung into his mind whenever he saw a jutsu being used. Apparently, it worked on his own sharingan too.   
Slowly this time, more carefully, Itachi again looked into the mirror, and again, the moment he made eye-contact with himself the Jutsu Path filled his mind. Prepared, this time, Itachi began to sift through the information, looking for anything useful, explanatory, revelatory.   
The surface level seemed fairly similar to what his “normal” sharingan would have subconsciously told him already: chakra costs, necessary seals, jutsu type, elemental affiliation, and so on. Staring at his eyes, the chakra costs appeared as a fraction- or perhaps, a percent?- but it was vanishingly small. There were no seals to speak of, of course, and the jutsu seemed to register as “kekkei genkei,” along with various other inappropriate modifiers such as “eye,” “genetic,” “demon,” etc.   
Interestingly, the elemental affiliation read as “Fire,” but was mixed with two nameless concepts, one that felt like thinking, like a dream, like a lightning strike, and one that was despair, was pain, was clearly, at least to Itachi, Death. The other he chose to call Pure, though there was nothing graceful or good about it, and nothing clean. It was just...plain, but more powerful. Human, almost, but idealized. Worth investigating later, at any rate.   
Satisfied that he had seen enough of whatever this surface level was telling him, Itachi then tried to consciously make an effort to look deeper into the jutsu’s effects, focusing chakra to his eyes, focusing on his every physical sensation, trying to pinpoint the exact mechanism that was propagating the jutsu.  
It worked.  
Through his effort, he seemed to unlock a second level of understanding, but the discovery was accompanied with a sudden and piercing pain, the intensity and unexpectedness of which caused Itachi to cry out. The pain concentrated in his eyes, and though Itachi dispelled his Sharingan immediately he still felt the drain in chakra hit him. As he collapsed back on the bed he saw that Sasuke had been woken by his outburst, and was running to his side. The sight made him vaguely annoyed, disgusted, as it had distracted him from anything that that deeper level could have told him. Sasuke arrived at his side in seconds, but Itachi was unconscious before the boy could place a hand on him.  
~~~  
Softly speaking voices roused Itachi once more, but, this time he was alert enough to control himself, and he decided, at least temporarily, to pretend to remain asleep. He needed the time to think anyway, and if, from the voices he could hear, Fugaku and a few of the other clan elders had been content to wait before, they could stand to wait another few minutes as well. Itachi was still a little overwhelmed by the events of the other night, so he decided to start by reviewing those, and trying to make sense of them.  
The ambush on Danzo had gone as planned, more or less, with Kakashi and Tenzo subduing Danzo’s guards and Hiruzen providing support while Itachi fought up close. Danzo temporarily freeing The Third had been a minor complication, but it soon became clear, and his Jutsu Path had corroborated this as well, that Itachi’s mastery of Shisui’s Sharingan was far more complete, owing to his Uchiha blood.  
In fact, Itachi wondered if he would’ve been able to subdue Danzo at all without the intuition his Jutsu Path granted. Danzo had wasted his first use of Izanagi in the Tsukuyomi, but Itachi was only able to realize that thanks to his Jutsu Path’s unerring supply of info. From there, it was a simple matter of convincing Hiruzen to delay Kakashi and Tenzo when they arrived long enough for Itachi to bait out Danzo’s second use of Izanagi, again within the confines of his Tsukuyomi.   
Yet such prolonged use of Tsukuyomi had blinded his right eye, no doubt in part caused by his use of the apparently costly Jutsu Path. The exhaustion had caused him to miss the circumstances surround Danzo and the Hokage’s deaths, but Tenzo’s hurried explanation once Itachi joined the battle had seemed plausible, if highly suspicious.   
What were the odds that Orochimaru decides to actually attack on the night The Hokage puts all of ANBU on alert for precisely such a thing? And could it really be coincidence that Orochimaru sends Obito to attack on the same night the Uchiha intend to instigate their coup? How could he have known?  
Still, Danzo had somehow used a Mokuton jutsu, and so had the masked man, Obito. This, despite the fact that Hashirama had never had any children, nor had any in Tobirama’s line of heirs ever displayed proficiency with the Mokuton. The only one who had developed The First Hokage’s powerful jutsu was Tenzo, and even then only through an artificial experiment of Orochimaru’s making. Could Danzo have been a beneficiary of these results too?  
In fact, as Itachi thought about it more, the more the pieces seemed to fit together. The Third had unwittingly supplied a connection between Danzo and Orochimaru, and it was seemingly increasingly plausible. In that case, one could imagine how if someone adept with Hashirama’s cells had encountered a dying Obito, they may have been able to apply that knowledge again. If Danzo had maintained contact with Orochimaru over the years, then he could easily have invited The Snake Sannin to help with the coup and clean up any loose ends afterwards, Itachi included.  
There was still a huge amount of certainty, Itachi realized, most significantly, why did Obito let Danzo die without intervening? Perhaps if his goal was not to stop the Uchiha Coup, but to simply wreak as much havoc as possible, then killing off Danzo and The Hokage would eliminate the two biggest threats in the Leaf, especially if he could then rely on help from the Uchiha.  
Itachi’s eyes snapped open, startling the elders gathered around him, and he sat up quickly to meet their gaze, even as Sharingan flared into life around him.  
“Did you conspire to kill The Hokage?” he said, locking eyes with his Father. The Older Uchiha looked taken aback, but, seeing Itachi had kept his own Sharingan under control, he dispelled his too.  
“No, Itachi,” he said, sighing, and signaling the other elders to back down. They did so warily, but still respecting the Uchiha Clan Head’s command. “Our advance scouts reported a fight taking place on outside our walls, but when they returned to give us word of what was going on, they were carrying you, and news of The Hokage’s death.  
“Not just the Hokage,” Itachi said, “Kakashi, Danzo-”  
“Yes,” Fugaku said, cutting him off, “And according to the ANBU you call Tenzo, among the dead was Obito Uchiha, who was thought to have been killed in action years ago.”  
“You spoke with Tenzo?”   
“Yes, him and the whole of ANBU. They were spouting something about an attack from Orochimaru, and had already rallied other clans. Some of us stayed behind to gather information from them, but their presence, coupled with your report to the scouting party, counselled us to call off the coup. For now,” Fugaku added, to the shared grimaces of the rest of the elders present.  
“They don’t suspect anything?” Itachi asked, his alibi already coalescing in his mind, now that he no longer suspected his clan of conspiring with Orochimaru.  
“Not as far as we’re aware. We told them we had sent out a party to investigate the battle, fearing an attack as well,” Fugaku narrowed his eyes at this, and Itachi felt the tone of the conversation shift, “at first they were hesitant to believe us, but Tenzo, who seemed to be acting as captain, quickly gave his assent to our bluff, and sent the ANBU away to secure the village perimeter and make sure there were no other attacks.  
“He knows something more than he was letting on,” Fugaku was now staring directly at Itachi while he spoke, “And I suspect that you do too, Itachi. What were The Third and Danzo doing there, on the path to our compound, when Obito attacked? What exactly happened last night?”  
Itachi closed his eyes, and collected himself. Six targets were far too many to handle with Shisui’s eye alone, especially considering how little chakra he’d regained, so it seemed he would have to convince them that he’d acted in the clan’s best interest, while also keeping them in the dark about what had actually transpired, all of his own accord.   
In some ways, this was to be his first act as Future Hokage of the Leaf. Lying to his clan and family about the murder of two Leaf Shinobi and his personal involvement in the manipulation of many more. Itachi found pride in his ability to use his village’s resources to their maximum potential, sacrificing autonomy for efficiency.  
The rest of his acts as Hokage would follow suit.

~~~

Finally, the elders were satisfied with Itachi’s explanation, and with the exception of Fugaku, they left the room. Itachi’s father lingered there, and after coming to some sort of resolution, he sat at Itachi’s bedside, eye’s level with his son’s.   
“Itachi, I...I,” Fugaku seemed unsure of whether he truly believed what he was saying, but continued anyway, “I believe what you’ve told us. I trust you, but is it really true?” Tears had formed in the corner of Fugaku’s eyes, though he remained serious, “The Hokage named you successor? Of his own volition, for the good of The Leaf, he named Itachi Uchiha the Fifth Hokage?”  
His father’s gaze was wavering, but Itachi was completely calm. Confidently he placed his hand on his father’s shoulder, and returned his gaze.  
“Father,” Itachi said, “I could never lie to one who shared these eyes. You may distrust me, but everything is as I said. I WILL be The Fifth Hokage, with or without your approval.”  
Fugaku trembled, and stood quickly, turning away from his son. He stood there for a moment, his back to Itachi, fists clenched.  
“Itachi,” he said at last, his voice barely kept in check, “You are the pride of the Uchiha, and the pride of this village. Our clan will support your bid for Hokage, unwaveringly, and you will be the best Hokage since the days of Madara. Do good for this village, my son.” With his final words, he left the room, shutting the door behind him, leaving Itachi alone with his thoughts and his scars.  
“One down,” he thought, with an overwhelming sense of relief, “Seven to go.”  
Slowly, painfully, he got out of bed, and dressed, for the first time in ages, in the civilian clothing hanging in his closest. For a time, however brief, he would have no need of his ANBU uniform, his sword, his jutsu.To become Hokage, afterall, would require more than just jutsu and skill, and at this juncture, what it called for most was diplomacy.  
The clans would have to be persuaded to see the merit of his candidacy, and in doing so give him their support, their “bid,” when he finally presented himself to the Daimyo. They had their own selfish motives, and they might very well be at odds with Itachi’s own. It was a different game, a different set of tactics entirely.   
Itachi combed his hair quickly in the mirror, and, after verifying that his and Shisui’s eyes were indistinguishable, he left the room.  
The game was different true, but Itachi still had the advantage, and in time, he was sure, the clans could be persuaded to agree.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realize that I glossed over the alibi Itachi presents to the elders at the end of the chapter, but fear not! I will post that scene as a Special Chapter soon. I removed it from the main sequence of chapters because, although I think it's sound, the amount of dialogue devoted to what is essentially a lie on Itachi's part seemed extraneous. Look for it soon :)


	5. Chapter 4

Itachi stood at the edge of the waterfall, watching the raging torrent froth and crash over the edge, every eddy fighting to move beyond the others, only to lose its footing, and fall, serenely, devoid of power, and join the river below.  
Water-walking was one of the most basic chakra control exercises taught to all Konoha shinobi, and, though its practical applications were few and far between in the densely forested village, the acquisition of the basic theory underlying the jutsu justified its practice. The process in general is as follows:  
First one must channel chakra, any chakra, to one’s feet, and use that chakra to strengthen the surface tension beneath them, just so much that one’s body is kept afloat. Too much too fast, or not enough, or an unequal amount, and one will end up submerged. Basic stuff, useful for building chakra-control, but otherwise mundane.  
Unless, for some reason, one possessed a mutant combination of Sharingan that helpfully explained every minute detail of any jutsu, with extraordinary breadth and depth.  
In that case, one would know that if one were to supply water-nature chakra while channeling, then one would, in addition to staying afloat, gain an approximate knowledge of the entire surface of the water around them (limited of course by one’s own sensitivity to the fluctuations of the surface tension.) If one instead supplied fire-nature chakra, then one would slowly increase the temperature of the water around them, and almost certainly lose their footing when the water turned into water vapor, due to the exponentially greater chakra control required to essentially “walk on air.”  
Yet one with such extraordinary chakra control, or perhaps one with the self-styled “Jutsu Path,” would be able to manage these interactions and more, altering the surface tension elsewhere in the water, reducing the temperature immediately beneath them. With such a vast degree of control, and complete knowledge of the underlying mechanics of the jutsu, one would be able to pull off incredible feats of control.  
A feat such as standing on the very edge of a roaring waterfall, feeling the tension around them, adjusting their control, remaining still while the water around them tumbled over the edge.  
Such a talented individual, were they subject to moments of egoism, might feel rather powerful, then. The sight of Konoha, majestically spreading out in the distance, unobscured from such a unique vantage point, one might feel a rush to the head.  
Itachi felt no such rush.  
He had stopped the coup, yes. His path to becoming Hokage was clear to him, and achievable, and Tenzo, the only one who truly knew of the actual treason Itachi had committed, seemed too shell-shocked, not to mention too afraid, to ever even imagine exposing him. Kakashi’s death had seen to that.  
But Kakashi’s blood, and Danzo’s, and, yes, the Third Hokage’s, were on Itachi’s hands. If he failed to become Hokage, failed to protect The Leaf and The Uchiha, then he had no path to redemption. He would have betrayed Shisui’s vision of peace for nothing.  
For greed.  
For pride.  
Itachi couldn’t decide which possibility frightened him most. Thus he refused to find out. He refused to let his sins define his future or the Leaf’s. He alone would decide that future. He would carry his sins, and the sins of his ancestors, and succeed in spite of them. Looking out over the village, his and Shisui’s eyes united in purpose, burning him, burning chakra, Itachi knew his path. He was in control.  
Itachi replaced the steady stream of chakra channeled through his feel with a burst of fire nature. Facing such a drastic increase in temperature, the water around him evaporated completely, and, for a second, the waterfall and the river that fed it were empty around Itachi. He alone stood at the edge of the cliff. The water came crashing back, of course, the river still yearning to flow every downwards, but for a moment, a single moment, Itachi stood at its head, and allowed no water to pass him.  
The exertion was enormous, and his eyes burned. With pain, yes, but more than that, with intent.  
Eyes of Pain looked over Konoha, and for a moment, a single moment, they controlled it, the whole of that great and terrible village, and everyone in it, and they were all of them united under Itachi’s great vision.  
As if on cue, the water came crashing over the edge of the waterfall again, and carried Itachi back to Konoha.

~~~

_This brings us to the rest of the Noble Clans. At the time of writing this, and including the Hyuuga and Uchiha from chapters passed, The Hidden Leaf’s Noble Clans number 8. This is not to say that these are the only clans, however, in fact quite the opposite is true. The Noble Clans are those who can trace their lineage unerringly to the founding of the village, before The First Hokage was even addressed as such. Since then, many branches of these founding clans have split off to form their own clans, and many more clans have come to be accepted within our walls._   
_Given their instrumental part in the formation of the village, the members of the Noble Clans are afforded special privileges within Konoha’s administration. Chief among these is the selection of candidates for The Hokage, but there are many more pertaining to trade and taxation policy..._   
_(Excerpt from the 3rd Manuscript, History of the Clans, page 7.)_

Traditionally, following the death of a jonin, there would be a formal, public funeral commemorating their service to the Leaf. Following the death of The Hokage, though the sample size was small, there had been similar ceremonies, though they bad been much grander, much more somber, and much more widely attended.  
The village council organized these ceremonies, and work on any given funeral would commence as soon as the bad news arrived. This insistence on expediency was partly to start the grieving process as quickly as possible, for ninja were practical folk, but mostly, and again, practically, so that a replacement could be found in good time.  
As the night of what was publically being called “Orochimaru’s Attack” turned into day, one would expect that, given the news of the deaths of The Hokage, a world famous jonin, and a venerated war veteran, a huge ceremony would have been planned.  
The village council, however, voted to delay the funeral proceedings for two key reasons.  
Firstly, though Danzo and Kakashi had no next of kin, The Third Hokage did. Asuma Sarutobi, son of Hiruzen Sarutobi and sole heir of the Sarutobi clan, was away attending to the Fire Daimyo as part the wealthy lord’s personal guard. The village council felt that to hold the ceremony without Asuma’s presence would be highly disrespectful of both him, and the memory of The Third Hokage.  
Secondly, and, in actuality, primarily, it was unanimously agreed that a ceremony held at this time would be impractical, given the small problem that Konoha was in a state of complete chaos and martial law had been declared to try and maintain a semblance of order.  
In accordance with the village’s founding guidelines the council had assumed de facto control over the village, and recalled all active shinobi, while also closing the village’s borders and halting all trade. There was no telling whether Orochimaru’s attack last night pre-empted a larger invasion, nor whether their yet existed more traitors and missing-nin among the population, thus total lockdown seemed to be the safest response.  
Privately, and, unbeknownst to them, correctly, the council was also terrified that the Uchiha clan might take advantage of the disarray and confusion to seize power.  
As it happened, the Uchiha clan did intend to seize power, though they had been convinced to let Itachi spearhead that movement. Itachi, for his part, advocated a more practical, diplomatic approach, and somehow, the entirety of the elders were already convinced of the correctness of this approach when they agreed to convene council again, a few days into martial law.  
It was around this time that, facing increasing pressure from every Noble Clan save the Sarutobi, the council agreed to reopen Konoha’s borders. In truth, indirectly or directly, The Noble Clans of Konohagakure also controlled the majority of its business and trade, and happened to quite like the huge flow of income they received from inter-village trade. With no evidence of a second attack emerging, and the only survivors of the previous attack,Itachi and Tenzo, indicating no sign of a second attack in their debrief, the council eventually acquiesced and began preparations for the funeral, and so too the eventual process for selecting the new Hokage.  
Itachi intended to be their only choice.  
Unfortunately, the village council actually had no say in the choice of Hokage, except insofar as they could delay when the next Hokage would be sworn in. Instead, owing again to traditions of the village past, candidates were put forward by each of the Noble Clans, and the current Hokage, and then passed on to the Daimyo, who, though he held veto power over any candidate, generally respected the Hokage’s word over the majority vote.  
But with the Hokage dead, Itachi’s candidacy came down to convincing each of the Noble clans to nominate him. Though Itachi could claim to the clans that Sarutobi had named him successor, only Tenzo could corroborate the claim, and importantly, Itachi was wary of the suspicion such an obviously personally advantageous claim could cast.  
Furthermore, Itachi knew that even without such official support, as a Uchiha he was already distrusted by the Daimyo and the Noble clans alike. Without unanimous support, the Daimyo was likely to reject him outright, out of fear of the Uchiha, and fear of the Noble Clans’ ire.  
The Uchiha would obviously give him their support, Shisui’s eye had seen to that, privately, over the course of a few days, but the other Noble Clans would be a huge obstacle. Technically there were many many clans, but only The Noble Clans had any influence. That the Fourth Hokage, for example, had been a member of the relatively unimportant Namikaze clan was no coincidence; the Noble Clans were unanimously ambivalent towards him.  
Excluding the Uchiha they numbered seven, and were, in increasing order of Uchiha distrust, Aburame,Inuzuka,Sarutobi,Yamanaka, Nara, Akimichi, and, coldly, eternally, the Hyuuga. In truth, the Aburame and Inuzuka were mostly indifferent to the Uchiha, and the “Sarutobi clan” now referred solely to Asuma Sarutobi. The Yamanaka, Nara, and Akimichi always acted in unison, so convincing one, typically the Nara, meant convincing all of them. As for the Hyuuga...  
Itachi had no solution to them, so far. They hated the Uchiha, irrationally, unfailingly. They would never accept him, if only in service to the simple vice of pride. To have any chance at convincing them would mean promising their clan huge concessions, not to mention debasing himself and the Uchiha somehow in the process.  
A problem to be solved, for certain, but if any progress was to be made on it, and indeed in convincing any of the clans, Itachi would need to gather intel, and divert suspicion. To this end, once martial law ended, acting as ANBU captain, he convened the jonin and ANBU of the village .  
~~~  
In response to Itachi’s direct order, Konoha’s ANBU and jonin gathered for the first time since The Hokage’s death in the clearing around the ANBU barracks, what had once been a dense forest. Itachi, as ANBU captain, still had the authority to gather his underlings for briefing, even if he lacked the executive power to direct them in anyway. The council had announced privately to each of the clans that martial law would be repealed the next day, so Itachi took this time, while the majority of the village still believed it was on lockdown, to gather intel.  
Tenzo had told him, privately, that all known Root operatives stationed in the village had been eliminated by him and Kakashi, but that still left the unknowns. Gathering the ANBU and jonin was therefore risky, since any root operative who knew about the gathering would be able to escape during the brief lapse in security. This narrowed the number of Root Ninja in the know to clan members and jonin and ANBU. As it happened Root members taken from Noble Clans had been the majority of Tenzo’s targets, given that Danzo had kept all such Root members in the village at all times. If a clan member was recognized outside of Konoha while acting under Root’s agenda, it wouldn’t be hard to deduce who exactly they were.  
As for jonin and ANBU who could use this time to flee without incident, their absence now would be proof of their duplicity, and sufficient to justify a kill order. Any such absence would be easily noticed too, sinceItachi knew the names of all his ANBU subordinates, and while he didn’t know every village jonin personally, he knew their exact number, and, luckily enough, the Sharingan made counting people trivially easy.  
With this logic in mind, Itachi was confident he could identify any traitors from this meeting alone, but even so, reassuring though this knowledge was, it came only as an added benefit to convening the meeting, for ALSO present among the gathered ninja were the clan heads of every Noble Clan, save for Hiashi Hyuuga. The Hyuuga, much like a favourite child of the Daimyo, were able to opt-in and out of any mission the Hyuuga Council of Elders deemed too dangerous, a luxury granted to them solely as reparation for the Kumogakure Incident. In practice, the Hyuuga extended this privilege to open defiance of all commanding officers save for The Hokage himself. In fact, with their privilege going unchecked in lieu of an acting Hokage, it seemed that each and every Hyuuga jonin had chosen, or more likely, was instructed by the Hyuuga Council, not to attend.  
Itachi didn’t mind the absence. It was a statement of defiance, to be sure, and another slight towards Uchiha pride, but as luck would have it their absence was exactly what Itachi needed to achieve the ends prompting this meeting. Furthermore, given their status as a Noble Clan, not to mention the Daimyo’s favouritism, it was next to impossible that Danzo had repurposed any member of the Hyuuga clan.  
No, the Hyuuga’s absence was certifiably a boon. Without their meddlesome Byakugan, the number of ninja who could see through his genjutsu fell substantially. Kakashi would have been another option, and Inoichi Yamanaka probably possessed the necessary perceptive abilities, but excluding them, well...The Leaf was not exactly famous for its genjutsu. Still, there were easily over a hundred shinobi gathered, and any attempt to use something as subtle and precise as Shisui’s jutsu, for example, would certainly fail.  
In this as in politics, the indirect approach was often the best.  
“You all know that, with the death of the Hokage, I lack any direct authority over you,” Itachi said at last, drawing the gathered ninja to attention, “yet it is my hope that, come this meeting’s end, you will for once find yourselves able to decide for yourself the way forward. For yourselves, your clan, and the village.”  
His statement was haughty, he could tell by his less than warm reception, but it’s not like the ninja here were unfamiliar with his style of leadership. A certain degree of hostility was always to be expected between commander and subordinate, but Itachi’s ends were best served by fanning any flames of resentment past that level. What he required was nothing short of mutinous feelings, but with a specific purpose behind them. That purpose still needed to be cultivated among the ninja gathered, thus Itachi was obliged to provide them more food for thought.  
“Among the casualties of Orochimaru’s attack was the council member, known to most of you as a war-veteran, Danzo,” there were nods from the more in-touch and senior shinobi, but most remained unmoved. He really wasn’t that famous among the younger generation. “With his death came the revelation that he had been acting in defiance of the Hokage’s will for many years. His actions in this time amount to treason, for which he would certainly be prosecuted were he still alive today, but no misdeed is more damning than the discovery of his personal, autonomous division of Leaf Ninja. These shinobi reported solely to Danzo, performing untold extra-legal acts for Danzo’s personal ends. The name of this group is ‘Root.’  
“Danzo was able to build the ranks of Root through years of deceit and manipulation, always jockeying for ever more power from his seat on the village council. The Third Hokage is most to blame for the continued existence of Root, but many others remain implicated in its continued existence and secrecy, not the least of whom were some of the heads of Konoha’s Noble Clans.”  
There were several grimaces among the crowd, some, like Shibi Aburame, concealing them well, Inoichi Yamanaka far less so. As for the clanless gathered, they began to look uneasy, especially those of whom who knew of Root beforehand.  
“But do not judge these individuals too greatly, you who knew not the extent of Danzo’s reach. See not a capitulation, but a coercion, an ultimatum, an impossible choice. How many of you can really say you would be willingly to risk the future of your whole clan to save but one of its members? By the same token, if you were offered the opportunity to avert such destruction by sacrificing yourself, wouldn’t honour alone dictate your action?”  
In a way Itachi understood the pain of those who’d given up family to Root for the sake of their clan. He’d lost Shisui to Danzo in much the same way. If the political fallout wouldn’t have been so utterly radioactive Itachi would have even considered making the full truth of that bloody night’s events known. If Itachi were forced to give Sasuke away to some evil organization like Root, or face the possible destruction of his clan...He didn’t know if he’d be able to make that choice. It scared him to think of what such a choice might do to someone.  
“So to those of you who were forced to offer your clansmen to Danzo, you have my utmost sympathy for the pain you suffered then, and what is yet to come. As to those of you who still fear Root’s influence, you at least may safely and painlessly overcome it. According to intelligence reports gathered after the events of Orochimaru’s attack, every known operative of Root stationed in the village at that time was killed.”  
As Itachi anticipated, many among the crowd were confused as to how to react. Jonin they may be, but those who accepted the Orochimaru explanation for The Hokage’s death at face value had no cause to think more deeply about the circumstances, and in truth, those who accepted it at face value were exactly the sort of ninja who knew nothing of Root or Danzo’s involvement.  
Those who knew of Danzo and Root beforehand also happened to be ones who’d lost a clansmen to Danzo, for the most part. They would be suspicious of the circumstances surrounding his death, and rightly so, but their suspicion would be tempered by relief at the destruction of Root. For each ninja who betrayed their pain at his words, Itachi saw another unable to contain the vindication they felt at the death of one who was too many Leaf’s most hated man.  
The vacant position now loomed over Itachi’s name like a guillotine.  
Now, one would expect a degree of skepticism coming from a village of experienced espionage experts, a group that was theoretically, if not definitionally, exposed to subterfuge on a daily basis, constantly forced to ask who their own allies were, to reevaluate. Whatever the nature of the happy coincidences that accompanied Orochimaru’s Attack, their veracity could corroborated by two witnesses. Any rational being would ask, at the bare minimum what these witnesses could stand to gain by fabricating their story, and, if that could perhaps implicate said witnesses at all.  
This was not the majority position of the crowd by any means.  
In one sense,Itachi was appalled by the lack of suspicion from the rest of the ANBU and more veteran jonin, but, primarily, he was absolutely unsurprised. He’d considered who is competition was for the position of Hokage and what he found had been both disconcerting and, very, very promising.  
There was only one anomaly, one edge case to be considered and countered at every point in his presentation.

~~~~

_Later_  
Itachi frowned as he leafed through the next section of this newly discovered text. Most of it had been useful so far, but as he read through this so called “Special Chapter” he was increasingly annoyed to find it developed almost IDENTICALLY to his own thought process on the subject of ambition.  
While it was true that the conclusions he’d come to on the subject were highly relevant to his actions during his earlier speech to the jonin and ANBU, he found that outlining them again in specific detail was simply too...boring to go through again.  
“Hn...I suppose that’s why it’s a Special Chapter,” he mused, “Oh hey that’s my name!”

~~~~~

It came as no surprise to Itachi when said anomaly among Leaf Ninja strode forward from the crowd with all the temerity and passion of youth, to address Itachi directly.  
“Are you fucking kidding me, you treasonous fucking weasel?” cried the voice, belonging to the one exception, the anomaly, The Leaf’s Green Beast, Maito Gai. The green clad ninja stepped forward, furious and terrible.  
“Even forgetting 'Orochimaru’s Attack,' which remains suspicious as all hell,” Gai thundered, “do you really think no one here would notice how convenient all of this for you? Bull-fucking-shit! You expect us to believe you had no knowledge of this apparently pervasive fucking network of Root ninja, right up until they all died? Did their eternal souls come visit you personally from beyond the grave to confess their misdeeds, oh Lord Uchiha? Otherwise you better start explaining yourself, you manipulative fucking prick."  
Inwardly, Itachi sighed. He had crafted his speech specifically to provoke such an outburst, but though Gai was the obvious outlier, and so the obvious potential critic to attempt to instigate, Itachi somehow hadn’t counted on him having such a foul mouth. The Leaf's Green Beast would need to curb that habit if he ever wanted to mentor the youth of tomorrow, at least if Itachi were Hokage.  
Actually, in retrospect, the vulgarity was probably just a byproduct of Gai’s anger and despair over the death of Kakashi. Itachi had felt as much and more after Shisui's death, so such a reaction from Gai was to be expected, if not strictly appreciated.  
The notion of the similarity almost drew provoked Itachi to smile, given what he was about to announce, but he subdued the thought.  
All humorous similarities aside, Itachi knew that pacifying Gai would amount to pacifying the rest of the clueless insignificants among the gathered ninja too. True, Gai's accusations may have been detrimental to Itachi's overall credibility, but it also perfectly set Gai up to act as a mouthpiece for the whole of the crowd, as well as a heuristic from which they could derive their own opinions.  
Itachi had intended as much of course. The insignificants were just that, politically, but they were also the group of ninja most likely to go rogue, which was an intolerable annoyance.  
They were a problem best dealt with early and decisively, so Itachi took a breath, tried even harder than usual to mask his disgust, and began the speech he’d prepared beforehand to respond to Gai’s accusations, when they eventually manifested.  
“Your accusations ring true, Gai,” Itachi said, nodding to show respect for the dissenting voice, “and though I do nothing to deny my guilt or my failure to protect our comrades and our village, still I assert that my ignorance was no great crime in and of itself.  
“You ask how I can claim to know of Root at all, given I have just assured you all of their total demise. Yet my statement then carries with it a powerful qualifier, for there is ONE former Root member known to me, alive among us, and he holds the key to Danzo and the whole of Root. He is a member of ANBU, and the only other witness to Orochimaru’s attack. His name is Tenzo.”  
The crowd burst into uproarious clamour before Itachi even spoke Tenzo's name, as it seemed that however clueless the majority gathered were regularly, the news of the only two witnesses to the attack had become common knowledge among the jonin.  
Itachi spoke nonetheless, for hearing his name spoken was Tenzo’s cue to appear beside Itachi, as they had discussed earlier. The young ANBU member was terrified, perhaps rightly for one faced with an angry, accusatory crowd of skilled assassins, but even young ANBU had training enough to conceal their emotions. Nonetheless, it was no accident that Itachi had had Tenzo don an ANBU mask anyway, and had isolated him from the crowd.  
“As it happens, part of one's induction into the ranks of Root is to receive a powerful seal that forbids them from talking about Root at all. That's rather convenient to me, I realize," Many among the crowd had taken on a quite skeptical look indeed, "but the veracity of the claim can be corroborated by any of the clan heads here, should they so desire."  
At this many of the skeptics changed their tone, whether due to the existence of an actual empirical way to test their beliefs, or, as Itachi suspected was the majority cause, out of complete confusion. Small minds can only hold so many questions at once, so in the effort of shifting that list in his favour, Itachi continued.  
"At any rate, this seal is part of how Root managed to remain inconspicuous for as long as they did, since no one among them could affirm their own existence, or the existence of Root at all. The seal is invisible, as all sufficiently powerful seals are made to be, and is thought to persist even in death.  
“Yet this seal was also tied to Danzo’s chakra, and his death seemed to cost it a great deal of its power. Tenzo realized as much while he tried to gather the ANBU afterwards, and shared his realizations with me after most agreed the attack was over. Still, I ask you not to condemn him, since he was in truth reporting to me, his superior, as any ANBU member should, and such a action is as reasonable as any other in times of danger.  
“Tenzo informed me that he could suddenly speak of Root freely, but what’s more than this, he realized that many of the names he had previously been unable to speak were suddenly spoken freely too, in fact, every Root member he’d known to be stationed in Konoha was suddenly within his capacity except, strangely, for his own name.  
“The reasons for why this is so are nigh unknowable now, ad up to debate, but, even so, one possible method of divination remains closed to us: Tenzo himself.  
"Tenzo’s mind cannot be read. It seems that in detecting such a foreign presence, the seal will immediately kill him, rather violently in fact. What's more, the fact that no captured Root members have ever divulged their secret, Ibiko Morino can verify this for us, leads me to think that, should they ever succumb to torture and the like, the seal will again act to protect Root's identity.”  
Itachi paused for a moment while the crowd considered his words. They would look to their de facto sounding board for guidance, and, while he remained outwardly angry, it seemed to Itachi that Gai was still working through the considerable information now thrust upon him. Itachi, however, was not content to let Gai decide his, and thus the crowd's, reaction just yet, and took this opportunity to make his final gambit.  
“Inoichi Yamanaka,” Itachi said, singling out the clan leader from among the crowd, “Perhaps you can corroborate my words? Will you read Tenzo's mind for the sake of us gathered here”  
Inoichi’s face fell the moment Itachi addressed him, and as Itachi continued speaking and the crowd turned to observe him, the man revered as the "Pride of the Yamanaka" began to tremble in fear.  
Itachi had expected as much.  
The Yamanaka clan had been, in a way, the inspiration for Itachi's avenue of attack towards the subject of Root. Initially, he had hoped to ignore the subject and feign innocence, but Tenzo's information paved the path for a better, more sympathetic approach.  
Among the list of names Tenzo had given him was Fu Yamanaka, formerly one of the most promising young ninja in all of The Leaf, only slightly younger than Itachi himself. It seemed likely that, if the seal was really mind-reading proof, then Inoichi in particular would have been cautioned against such an approach.  
Yet Itachi began to resent his naivety very quickly as the other way by which Inoichi could have found out became clear to him, and which seemed far more consistent with the reaction Inoichi was now totally failing to conceal.  
"Fuck," Itachi thought ruefully, "Danzo was a monster."  
“Itachi speaks truthfully,” came the clear voice of Shikaku Nara, pulling the attention of Itachi and the crowd, “at least in regards to the seal’s immunity to Yamanaka techniques. I cannot vouch for its protections against other measures of information extraction,” he continued, his voice growing suddenly cold as he met eyes with Itachi, “but I would advocate them nonetheless.”  
“Goddamn Nara clan”, Itachi thought with some annoyance.  
The plan had been for Inoichi to reluctantly back his statement, thus implicating the Yamanaka, and in essence all of the Noble Clans, as complicit in Root's operation. Complicit, and so fully aware of the organization's existence.  
But Inoichi, inadvertently, and Shikaku, almost certainly intentionally, had ruined the ploy, and worse, turned it on Itachi.  
Yamanaka was broken by Itachi's implication, and the crowd could only perceive this as the Yamanaka's admission of shame, guilt, powerlessness. Still technically ok, but the sympathetic bent was unhelpful, and being labelled cruel would not be politically advantageous.  
Yet any hope of ignoring the miscalculation and proceeding as usual was dashed completely once Shikaku weighed in. Even Itachi respected the man's intelligence, and with his response being so contrary, the crowd would respond with vigor to the easy and obvious notion of a heroic Shikaku protecting his comrades and defying the cruel Itachi.  
Now Itachi would no longer seem to be verifying the truth of his claims, rather he would perceived as gloating about their indisputability, and the crowd, especially now that fucking Shikaku was there to provide them sensible advice, would quickly slip from Itachi's control.  
This needed redirection.  
“Unfortunately for us,” Itachi replied evenly, “The Hokage is the only one with the jurisdiction to order such treatment, though you may advocate it, Lord Nara. Furthermore, though I lack his authority, even in this state of emergency, I do retain control over my own men."  
A start. Now the ugly notion of torture floated over Shikaku, and Itachi would seem both kinder and more authoritative, at least temporarily. Time to press his advantage,  
“For this reason I am opting to remove Tenzo from active duty as a ninja. The extent of his seal’s influence is unknown to us at this juncture, and though I have observed nothing in him that would dissuade me of his loyalty to the Leaf, I cannot in good faith put the safety of this village in his hands."  
Now this was unheard of. ANBU didn't get to retire, they lived and died in service to the role. The implications of Tenzo's dismissal were thus highly varied, but the one Itachi wanted to cultivate was the notion of forgiveness. The crowd was shocked at Itachi’s decision, but lacking a clearly correct response to the situation, they seemed to accept it, reluctantly, with the visible exception of Shikaku Nara, and of course, Maito Gai.  
“Tenzo’s innocence is not my sole concern,” Shikaku said, before the crowd composed itself, and, Itachi realized, before their opinions could solidify. Itachi had to commend him for his persistence; he was unlikely to gain support among the crowd if Shikaku and Gai kept him on the defensive, as they had been doing.  
“Damn straight!” Gai shouted “All you’ve shown us is that you were ignorant to a massive conspiracy consisting of YOUR men!”  
“That,” Shikaku added, “Or you were aware from the beginning, and chose to do nothing.”  
The tone of the crowd began to grow more agitated with each added criticism. Itachi was fast losing credibility among them, and with the label of “untrustworthy” being so constantly implicated, it would soon be the case that the more Itachi tried to defend himself, the more it seemed like he was making excuses. In such circumstances, Itachi knew, it was advantageous to concede and cut losses, before suffering irreparable damage.  
Luckily, this was Itachi's intent from the beginning, and Shikaku unwittingly had provided the perfect response to the problem he'd provoked.  
“Consider your position, Shikaku, before you implicate me so,” Itachi replied, addressing the Nara Clan head with icy formality, “I would not be alone among the ninja of the Leaf in turning a blind eye to Root’s operation.”  
It was a damning rebuttal, even if only a few of the gathered ninja understood it, and the swing in crowd from anger back to confusion left Itachi the perfect opportunity to further pursue his innocence while moving towards his true goal.  
“Still, I would caution you not to bear excessive guilt over these matters,” Itachi spoke vaguely enough for the gathered ninja to insert themselves into his exoneration, “Danzo and Root were powerful, and their influence extended far beyond that of the ninja that comprised them. Danzo’s seat on the village council was but one aspect of the influence he had over many clans. No one can be faulted for fearing Danzo’s reprisal towards their clansmen, their children.  
“Yet I have no such excuse,” The change in direction was intentional, and the contrast of the innocent ninja and Itachi himself would surely influence the crowd’s reaction to what came next. “For Root was allowed to continue under my tenure, and among my subordinates. I had believed that my strength as a ninja and as a Uchiha would suffice against any real threat the Leaf faced, but, as you say, Gai, I was wrong.”  
Itachi allowed his voice to shake somewhat on the last syllable, for added authenticity, but it seemed the crowd was so shocked at his sudden capitulation that they forgot for a moment their gradually built skepticism. They had begun to think of him as a liar, as cruel, as power-hungry, but his apparent humility flew in the face of that notion. Gai was for once speechless, and though Shikaku Nara narrowed his eyes in suspicion, he too remained silent.  
“When my village needed me, needed my judgment, I failed them. It was I who convinced the Hokage to send the ANBU to protect the village, opposite to where our intel predicted an attack. I was convinced that I could lead my clan against the coming threat without anyone else’s help, that we could save Konoha alone.  
"If not for Danzo’s timely realization of my intent, and his forces delaying Orochimaru’s until he and the Hokage could arrive, the Leaf may not have lived to see the next day.  
“So it was that they sacrificed themselves to save the Leaf, and to right my wrong. I too, paid a price for that night, and for my recklessness. I was blinded by my ambition then, and I am blind even now.”  
Itachi’s words hung for a moment, the crowd confused as to his meaning, but realization dawned on them like a waterfall as Itachi removed his ANBU mask to reveal his eyes, milky white and unseeing.  
Well, that’s how it seemed.  
In actuality, Itachi had broken his ANBU mask the night before, and this one was simply a Root mask that Tenzo had been able to provide for him. As for his eyes, though he had certainly overexerted them, and his vision was fading with each use of the Mangekyou and Shisui’s jutsu, to be blind after so few uses would be ridiculous. The effect was purely a genjutsu, albeit one cast by the strongest genjutsu user in the Leaf.  
Still, Itachi was willingly to bet that only one remaining among the Leaf could see through it, and as he surveyed the gathered ninja (without moving his head or eyes of course) it seemed all were equally awed and convinced, save for Inoichi Yamanaka, who was conferring urgently with Shikaku in whispered tones, and...shit. Inoichi wasn't the only one.  
There was a female ninja among those gathered, not part of Itachi’s ANBU, who had gone completely still. An ANBU would be able to control their body language better for one thing, but even so, she alone stiffened in a crowd suddenly imbued with energy and conspiracy.  
Of course, had a _Hyuuga_  been present, they could have seen immediately that Itachi was channeling chakra around his eyes. Unfortunately there were no Hyuuga present to observe Itachi’s duplicity. Pity that. Itachi had even written a strongly worded letter to Hiashi Hyuuga himself, insisting that they obey his authority and show up.  
Oh well.  
That jonin though...her presence disturbed Itachi monumentally. As the crowd broke out into whispered discussion, Itachi watched her closely. She was nestled among Asuma Sarutobi and Tsume Inuzuka, and unsurprisingly, they began talking loudly amongst themselves about this development.  
A small miracle. The jonin would be lucky to get in a single word among those two, which bought Itachi some time. He would have to deal with her immediately.  
In that case, he could delay no longer.  
Time for the finisher.  
“As you have suggested, Gai,” Itachi began, drawing the crowd to attention again, “I am unfit to lead the ANBU in this state. For this reason, and acting under the authority given to me as Captain of The ANBU, I hereby appoint you Interim Captain of The ANBU, and I resign from my position as Captain. That is all I have to say.”  
The crowd erupted with questions, accusations, congratulations, and Gai, suddenly burdened with both responsibility and questions from everyone was left unable to make a single remark before Itachi vanished.  
The gathering was quickly breaking apart into various subgroups and dispersing, the Yamanaka Trio quickly departing whilst in the midst of a heated discussion, and the female jonin trying to speak up amidst Tsume and Asuma’s continued discourse.  
Itachi's substitution jutsu had swapped him with one of the many shadow clones he’d set up around the perimeter of the gathering, which he quickly dispelled. Having chosen the one closest to the young, unknown jonin, Itachi performed a quick, discreet shunpo to arrive before them. His other Shadow clones moved to create a subtle perimeter around them, intercepting any who might notice his presence there and interfere.  
Thus Itachi was left face to face with Asuma Sarutobi, head of the Sarutobi Clan, Tsume Inuzuka, incumbent head of the Inuzuka Clan, and finally, this mysterious female jonin- and her Sharingan?

~~~

Nope, not a Sharingan. Itachi had almost thought she was a Uchiha, due to her stunning, blood red irises, but on closer inspection they lacked the black tomoe characteristic of the Uchiha bloodline.  
Wow he really was going blind, shit.  
“A word if you please,” he said, addressing the unknown female jonin, ignoring the combined scowls of Tsume and Asuma, “In private.”  
“Um, excuse you?" came Asuma's voice, _highly_ incredulous and already defensive.  
"What exactly do you plan to tell her that you can’t tell us, huh?” Tsume barked, as Asuma continued to speak, “You’re not exactly authorized to be doling out classified intel anymore anyway.”  
Itachi turned to focus on the boisterous duo, and controlled himself as a thousand different biting replies flew threw presented themselves.  
“These two need to be on my side,” he thought, exerting his every ounce of self-control, “I cannot get their support if they mistrust or dislike me.”  
“Sorry, you two,” Itachi said, “I didn’t see you there.” Asuma stiffened and Tsume raised her hackles, but Itachi’s broad smile and easy expression diffused the tension, and when the female jonin failed to suppress a giggle, the other two relaxed as well and joined in her laughter.  
“Geez, Itachi,” Asuma said, smirking a bit as he retrieved and lit a fresh cigarette, “Didn’t expect that from you. When I left the Leaf you were such a serious little brat. I guess people change, huh?”  
“No, Asuma, this is a pretty sudden change,” Tsume sneered, “He’s been a sullen stick in the mud since day one. Truly, the pride of the Uchiha.”  
“I guess that makes you the pride of the Inuzuka then, huh?”  
“And how exactly do you figure that, oh Lord Sarutobi?”  
“Well you’ve always been Konoha’s #1 loudest bi-”  
Asuma’s words were cut off as Tsume tackled him to the ground, which set the female jonin to laughing again, Itachi smiling alongside her.  
“Are they always like this?” Itachi asked lightly, as he and the jonin watched them wrestle.  
“Basically,” she affirmed, a wistful look gracing her features, “It's funny, he was gone for years and years but they pick up again like not a day has passed.  
“The cigarettes are new though,” she said, furrowing her brow a bit. Itachi let the comment slide, but noted her displeasure. Something to keep in mind for the future.  
“Well it’s always good to see unity between the clans,” Itachi said, intending to provide a simple, off-hand remark. But his misstep didn’t go unnoticed, and Kurenai tensed up again, leading to silence between them until the pair wrestling on the ground eventually broke things up.  
“I can tell,” Itachi said, Asuma and Tsume looking confused as to why Kurenai was suddenly tense again. He chose his words more carefully this time, “That you see through my genjutsu.”  
Asuma narrowed his eyes while Tsume cocked her head to the side, but Kurenai tensed even more. Looking around, Itachi saw that the jonin he had gathered had all but dispersed or been turned away by his shadow clones, leaving only him and the jonin trio still in the clearing.  
Convinced of their relative privacy, Itachi closed his eyes, and released the genjutsu surrounding them. When he opened them again, they were his usual grey, and he looked to each of the jonin in turn.  
“When I said I was blind,” he began, “that was somewhat of an exaggeration. In truth, it is only my sharingan that have been rendered impotent. I can still see you all before me.”  
“You seemed pretty comfortable to let the rest of the crowd be deceived. Why lie to them?” the female jonin grit out, as Asuma and Tsume tensed beside her. Learning you've been lied to tends to breed hostility, after all.  
“For the same reason as I singled you out initially,” Itachi replied evenly, though he could still sense the tension building ever higher, “I needed to find those who could see through the Uchiha’s genjutsu. You and Inoichi Yamanaka are the only ones who succeeded.”  
Asuma drew his blades at once, while Tsume settled into her clan’s trademark fighting stance, but Itachi held his hands up to signal his submission. The female jonin, for her part, remained neutral, but Itachi could feel the distinct sensation of foreign chakra probing his eyes, probably her genjutsu.  
Itachi realized, belatedly, that his inadvertent cruelty to Inoichi did not predispose him to seeming altrusitic here. It kind of seemed like the thing you would do to someone you were toying with before you killed them. Shit.  
“Not to eliminate you!” he said hurriedly, bowing his head and throwing his hands up to show his non-resistance.  
They came at him anyway.  
“To train you!" he shouted jumping back from the knife blade swinging towards his throat.  
"It was the Third Hokage’s last request!" a sidestep to avoid the meteoric Inuzuka and her claws.  
"He asked me to protect the village against the Uchiha, but I can’t do that without my sharingan!” He felt a genjutsu probing in his field of vision, and deliberately pushed his chakra away to allow it to take hold.  
And suddenly he really was blind, and deaf to boot.  
Itachi couldn't tell what was happening, but he had maintained his conciliatory posture, so he hoped they had at least decided he was not an active threat. He had felt the genjutsu and deliberately let it in, if the jonin was any good at all she would have noticed, and she must be at least _somewhat_ good if she saw through his genjutsu before so-  
“What do you mean by train?” came her voice, breaking the total silence, suspicion apparent.  
Itachi looked for the source of the voice but it seemed to come from all around him. Hopefully he would be able to talk without hearing his own voice, and they would be able to understand him.  
“I mean that I would teach you how to use and neutralize our clan’s most powerful genjutsu,” he said cautiously, “in the hope that you could resist them in the future, and train future ninja to resist them too.” The jutsu persisted, but he was given no reply, so he continued, hopefully, speaking, “I failed the village by acting alone. I know this, and it is my shame to live with, but I will not be reduced to inaction by it. I’m going to keep trying to protect the Leaf, that's what I'm trying to do right now, just, not alone this time.  
“Will you help me? Please?” he said, addressing the unknown female jonin as directly as he could without knowing her relative position at all. This was a hugely risky ploy, he knew, and he was already regretting it, regretting not simply subduing the three of them with the Mangekyou when he had the chance. It was a waste of Shisui's power to use it on them, and Itachi was certain he did not have uses enough left to do the same for every clan, but what else could he do, backed into this corner?  
If Kurenai refused his request, given her ability to detect genjutsu, it was entirely possible Itachi would be unable to convince her with Shisui’s jutsu anyway.  
So say she refuses. Itachi dispels the genjutsu and...and then what? Tsume would be trivially easy to subdue, but Asuma was an unknown quantity at this point. If he were to engage Itachi in close-quarters taijutsu while Kurenai provided support, the fight might be impossible to end discretely. Killing three jonin, two of whom were clan heads, would draw too much attention, especially if someone began asking why one random, female jonin was included in that total...  
“Fine,” she said after what seemed like an eternity, snapping Itachi out of his mental calculations, “If it’s for the sake of the Leaf, I’ll do it.”  
“What? Are you sure, Kurenai?” Asuma asked, as surprised as Itachi at her decision. Kurenai? Oh, of course! Kurenai Yuuhi, that was her name! Itachi mentally breathed a huge sigh of relief. Yuuhi was a no-name clan. Originally an offshoot of the Uchiha who then left the clan after failing to produce the Sharingan for several generations, only a few years after the formation of Konoha. Kurenai was the only remaining member of the Yuuhi clan, as far Itachi could remember.  
“I’m sure,” Kurenai said, turning to her clearly skeptical friends, “We're not kids anymore, but we're not regular jonin either. You guys are going to have to do your part as clan heads to keep Konoha safe...I want to do my part too.”  
“Ok, that’s totally fair,” Tsume said, no less concerned, “But are you sure we can even trust this guy?”  
Quieter, though Itachi still heard quite clearly, “He’s a Uchiha, Kure...”  
“Hey, I’m the only here who saw through his genjutsu, you know,” Kurenai countered, a coy smile beginning to show itself, “How can I be sure you aren’t all under his control already?”  
“I guess you can’t, Kure,” Asuma said, seriously, beginning to stroke his chin as he mimed being deep in thought, “unless you’ve noticed any sure signs of the Uchiha manifesting in us...”  
“Oh no, I think...I think he’s taken control of me!” Tsume said frantically,“HN!”  
“Oh shit, me too! HNNNNN!”  
“HNNNNNNNN!”  
“HNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!”  
So it was a clan thing then.  
The jonin trio eventually broke down laughing, to Itachi’s slight annoyance, but finally Asuma and Tsume regained their composure and, seemingly convinced of Kurenai’s ability to handle herself, they bid her goodbye.

  
~~~

After a brief discussion, her and Itachi decided to relocate to one of the indoor training areas designed for the practice of genjutsu. It was designed so as to minimize any risk of injury while incapacitated, and so mostly featured soft cushions and several booths in which two ninja could face each other while remaining comfortable.  
“So,” she said, joining Itachi in the booth he'd chosen, “We’re alone, the rooms reserved for the next hour, and I’m ready to learn. What’s first?”  
“An advanced technique,” Itachi said lightly, his and Shisui’s sharingan flaring into existence. Genjutsu user or not, it seemed not to matter.  
Kurenai Yuuhi was completely, instantly, under Itachi's control.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If the brief detour was insufficient to express my intent, there's a big (if maybe, boring) breakdown of the powerful ninja in Konoha coming soon, as documented by The Third Hokage's Manuscript. There are a lot of intricacies between clans and administration that I opted to include there instead to avoid cluttering this already fairly involved chapter, so if you burn for the validation of Itachi's decisionmaking process, look no further than that upcoming chapter. The previously mentioned dialogue between Itachi and the Uchiha clan elders will follow suit as well, although it will be placed BEHIND chapter 4.
> 
> We're finally getting into Itachi's struggle to become Hokage and i'm so excited to finish writing it and share the rest of Itachi's eventual manipulations with you. Next actual chapter will focus on the Aburame and the Yamanaka-Nara-Akimichi clans confrontations with the ambitious little tyke.  
> Stay tuned and thanks for reading :)


	6. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapters begins chronologically slightly before the end of the previous chapter, from Kurenai's perspective.

~~~

After a brief discussion, they decided to relocate to one of the indoor training areas designed for the practice of genjutsu. It was designed so as to minimize any risk of injury while incapacitated, and so mostly featured soft cushions and several booths in which two ninja could face each other while remaining comfortable.

Kurenai suppressed a smile as Itachi surveyed the booths with an oh-so serious expression on his face, evaluating each and every one in turn. She'd long since stopped using these training grounds, having no one to train with, but it amused her nonetheless to think that Itachi had never so much as graced them. Uchiha privilege at work, no doubt.

She, on the other hand, had spent years developing her talent for genjutsu, studying under, and eventually surpassing all of the Leaf's foremost experts. Inoichi and Ibiki alone were the only ones even close to her level, and though their talents in certain areas surpassed hers, it wasn't by much. She'd hesitate to even call Inoichi a master if it weren't for his ability to navigate the mind so. Ibiki, was a bit better, inhumanely resilient, and with a knack for escaping and reversing genjutsu, but he lacked any real improvisational technique, or sense of subtlety at all really.

As for Itachi, he'd been assigned a completely different branch of ANBU when he first joined, operations not intelligence, and, beyond the standard ANBU rumours and gossip, she'd never had a chance to observe his genjutsu skill in action.

Until today of course. Visual illusions were a rudimentary technique, but even still they had the potential for deep mastery. What she saw from Itachi...

To put it bluntly, it was sloppy. Dangerously so, even. The second he started speaking she could sense the distortions and oversaturation of chakra around his face, probably Itachi's attempt to brute force the delicate process of attuning his Chakra with the environment, his own body, and the ambient chakra of the crowd. Rather than the precise tailoring of master, his technique was ill-informed and straight up incorrect. It was awful, amateur technique, 

and it had clearly fooled almost every ninja there. All of the Leaf's greatest shinobi, not just the jonin and ANBU but every veteran of merit was present, and they'd all succumb, save for her, and probably Inoichi. The Hyuuga had made a point of not attending, and Ibiki was absent too, understandably occupied with making sense of the ridiculous, unprecendented situation that had caused all this pageantry.

Even Asuma, for all his talk of the Fire Guard and how strong he'd gotten, fooled by such rudimentary genjutsu. 

Honestly, Kurenai was pissed. She'd wanted to tell Asuma and Tsume right there, but Itachi was on her like a hawk immediately. Even if she'd told them, would they have believed her? Since when did they have even the slightest respect for her skill? Them laughing at Itachi's expense, when they'd bitched all through the academy about how unfairly strong the Sharingan was? It was all she could do not to scream at them for being idiots, that Itachi could probably attack and kill them both. 

And yet she she couldn't let the idiots get themselves killed. Even in her anger she played the role they'd come to expect of her, because she wanted to protect _them_ for a change. Asuma had been back for less than a week and she was already falling into old habits. Kurenai grimaced at the thought, looking to Itachi, who seemed to have settled on a spot. She barely knew him, but she resolved that, Uchiha or not, prodigy or not, Hokage or not, she would have his respect. 

“So,” she said, putting on a cheery face and joining Itachi in the booth he'd chosen, “We’re alone, the room's reserved for the next hour, and I’m ready to learn. What's first, oh puissant Uchiha?”

All at once a surge of chakra consumed the air around Kurenai, manifesting within a fraction of a section. It was impossibly strong, overwhelming beyond any technique she'd ever encountered and she knew, she _knew_ he was using genjutsu, but it was already past her defenses, and pouring into her chakra network and dammit dammit stay conscious push back stop it stop it stop stop stopstopstopstop-

“An advanced technique,” Itachi said lightly, his Sharingan flaring into existence. Genjutsu user or not, it seemed not to matter.

Kurenai Yuuhi was completely, instantly, under Itachi's control.

And she was aware, lucid, trapped for every terrible second.

The panic was incredible. Kurenai was a trained ninja, had been face to face with death more times than she could count, had fought genjutsu-to-genjutsu with enemy ninja while _also_ engaging them hand-to-hand; she had focus, clarity, and poise beyond the level of any genjutsu user in the whole of the Leaf, yes, even Ibiki, and she still couldn't fucking stop herself from panicking.

Over and over and over again, fears spiraling out of control even as she addressed and subdued others, focus being pulled always inward, to herself to her safety to escaping-but why? Why was he able to do this?

The thought flashed through her mind and was gone, enveloped as impartially as any other she could muster by the constant constant constant fear and panic and drive to escape escape escape find some way out-

-But, why?

Why had she failed, and why was she unable to beat Itachi. Yes, he was terrifying and A Threat and she was trapped and needed to escape- but why? She'd seen his attempt at illusion, it was awful. Not feinting weakness awful, no-idea-how-to-genjutsu-at-all awful. Why was there such a disparity? She'd faced the same thing countless times, and had felt the same panic- the Hell Viewing technique for example- the technique could be made arbitrarily, stupidly strong, mind-breakingly strong, but it was so shallow that any halfway-competent ninja could expel it immediately once it was perceived, trivially, even, by just closing one's eyes.

Clearly this was beyond the Hell-Viewing technique, although again this was a discrepancy. With his level of mastery it would be impossible for Itachi to use a more significant technique. Even if this were one of the more powerful genjutsu with which Kurenai was familiar, and Itachi was brute-forcing it like before, he would have had to break her defences, have to at least _interact_ with her mental barriers. Yet he slipped by completely, like his chakra was manifesting within her mind itself...

He was an amateur, he couldn't even produce a stable chakra flow on his own face for his own genjutsu, there was no way he could control flow rates with anything approaching the speed necessary to catch Kurenai off guard, let alone completely surpass her defenses. There was simply no technical way for him to do it. 

So then, he couldn't be doing it.

Of course! Obviously, stupid Yuuhi, he's A UCHIHA. She'd heard of their eye techniques before, of course, but given that they were part of the village no-one had saw fit to prepare against their techniques. In fact, that was precisely what Itachi was warning her about.

But why?

Whatever that kernel of confusion, it had been enough. Whatever that compulsion to understand, it had broken the illusion-she simply couldn't be convinced of anything by a genjutsu that made no sense. Kurenai stopped panicking. She found poise. She was still putting out mental-fires left and right to stop the spread of Itachi's chakra, and she could tell there was chakra deeply, deeply ingrained in her system already, but she was no longer powerless. In fact, she realize at once, beyond the initial influx of chakra, he hasn't invested anymore. He's still working on my defences.

Kurenai blinked. The loss of visual contact broke Itachi's concentration.

Itachi blinked, and blood began to trickle from his eye. Then, following a swift elbow to the nose, blood began to not so much trickle as burst from his broken nose, and he was on the ground.

Like hell was anyone going to try genjutsu on Kurenai Yuuhi and get away with it.

~~~

Itachi came to slowly, aware that something had happened, but unable to really see or articulate the difference. What the hell had happened? Why didn't he care? Why did his nose hurt so much? Why didn't he care?

He had been controlling Yuuhi, building layers of chakra and persuasion into her system, Shisui's eye working as it always had, and then...she broke out? Of his Tsukuyomi??

"That's pretty hot," Itachi thought, a little absentmindedly. His vision seemed to focus then, and the foggy form of Yuuhi came into view, apparently a few paces in front of him. She did not look impressed.

"I'm not impressed, Uchiha brat," she said, arms folded, "in fact, I'm a little offended that you thought you could teach _me_ a lesson in genjutsu." That he had just tried to mindcontrol her went unsaid.

Like an idiot, Itachi blushed and looked away. He caught a flicker of surprise pass over Kurenai's features, to be quickly replaced with a smirk. Face burning he hung his head, mostly to hide his obvious embarassment, but also for the opportunity to focus and think. For some reason, Kurenai seemed content to let him, or at least content to delay his eventual death. Whatever the reason, Itachi was determined not to waste it.

"So. I notice I am confused," Itachi thought, "why is she affecting me like this? How? I saw her before and I was fine. We were alone in that booth and I didn't feel any differently, but for some reason now that we're...wait. Where are we?"

Itachi tried to look around, but failed. His eyes didn't want to process whatever they were seeing, Kurenai Yuuhi's gorgeous body, aside. She was really so beautiful, how he'd never noticed-

"Stop that!" Itachi thought, angrily, "Let me focus on something else!" He felt as if his capacity to avoid considering such things was blocked, like a physical barrier was keeping him from looking around, or even wanting to, or even thinking that he could look around at all. His thoughts were pulled, like a ship in the wind, always in her direction. His perception was so deeply constrained, his ability to care about anything at all so suppressed, all except for the idea of Kurenai Yuuhi, her eyes, her hair...

Itachi saw a way out. He couldn't bring himself to consider how his hands and feet felt, that was off-limits, but Kurenai Yuuhi was a competent kunoichi if Itachi had ever met one, she would have no doubt bound his hands and feet as soon as she had him incapacitated.

"Probably gagged too," Itachi mused for a second before needing to spend an embarrassing amount of time putting down that particular train of thought.

Of course a ninja such as Kurenai would have made it hard for him to escape. The traditional way to free oneself from genjutsu was to inflict some minor injury, but that required some freedom of movement. Even biting his tongue would be impossible. Maybe if Kurenai would slap him, that would work. Probably she wouldn't though, if visual contact was required for her genjutsu. Itachi remembered now that when she'd managed to break contact with him, he'd immediately lost control, his eyes straining from the exertion.

An unsavoury option presented itself. Itachi sighed, and decided he couldn't afford the time to think of something better.

"I expect I will regret this," he thought, as he activated his and Shisui's Mangekyo sharingan. The chakra drain hit him hard, but he remained lucid enough to feel the sudden, stabbing pain in his eyes as the pinwheeled into shape. 

It was enough, and the world around Itachi quickly regained clarity.

~~~

Kurenai watched absentmindedly as Itachi slowly struggled against her genjutsu. In fact, he seemed to be figuring it out remarkably quickly, given his apparent lack of genjutsu talent otherwise. He must have found some anchor as he came to draw his attention. What could it have been, she wondered? She doubted he could sense the trickle of chakra she was using to keep the jutsu active, was there some contaminant? She couldn't see how that be the case either, but perhaps his Sharingan were confusing the process. 

"That's just not fair, little weasel," she said softly, smiling a little. Weasel though he was, the brat was beginning to grow on her, now that she'd had a chance to kick his ass physically and mentally.

He had tried two times now to deceive her, both during his little speech to the rest of the the Konoha jounin, and with his Definitely Formidable Uchiha Genjutsu, but she felt surprisingly...ambivalent towards the fact. Rather than deceived, she felt almost condescended to.

The thought made her scowl. She was no stranger to condescension, thanks to the heroic efforts of one Asuma Sarutobi. What an ass. She'd been so obsessed with him in the academy, and well into their chunin years, but his time away had given her time to think, and time to make her own way. Without him teasing her, mocking her love for genjutsu, and just being generally over-proud, Kurenai had actually been able to work for herself, for her own sense of pride. She had found it, too, and proven it time and time again, but Asuma had never even acknowledged her.

He seemed changed, the death of The Third certainly had seen to that, but would it last? Would things be any different, or would he keep thinking of her as some fragile little flower to be protected?

Two-faced as the Uchiha brat was, he'd at least respected her ability enough to think her a threat. Furthermore, despite losing out to her genjutsu, Itachi still respected the skill. Indeed, even as she watched him struggle with her jutsu, he seemed to be improving. Not many shinobi could go from being knocked unconscious and hypnotized to overcoming a new, advanced level genjutsu all within the span of a few minutes.

"Maybe I was too quick to judge," Kurenai mused, "not looking underneath the underneath and all that. Let's give him a chance to redeem himself."

As she watched him, a thin line of blood began to trickle from the Itachi's closed and frustrated eyes.

"Resourceful," she said, as those red and burning eyes of pain turned to meet her own. She smirked, then spoke up.

"Those eyes seem to be quite the source of pain for you, dear Itachi. Perhaps you need my help more than you let on." He remained impassive, clearly still on guard, but his Sharingan faded away as he submit himself to an asymmetry of red.

"Alright." Itachi said, wiping away the thin lines of blood settled on his face, and standing up from the booth. That Kurenai had let him live, and was still willing to help him, went unsaid. Kurenai followed suit, and they walked towards the door in silence, the haze of circumstance to heavy for speech to part. Itachi reached to open the door, but stopped, door ajar, as if struck by a thought.

Kurenai paused behind him, and was reminded of her own time training here. How she would leave feeling wired, full of energy, but unable to think at all, stumbling home on autopilot, lost in a daze. Training genjutsu was no great toll on the body, but the vivid experiences, confined to one's own mind, reachable only through concentrated power of will, were a different kind of draining.

That kind of removal from the real world was hard to compartmentalize, and hard to return from. Over the years, however, Kurenai found that the training rooms were were useful in this way too. The blandness, the muted sights, they were a comfort. Despite what one might experience internally, it never managed to break into the real world, into the room's comfortable uniformity. Without foreign chakra there to sustain the illusion, one's unique thoughts and perception always returned, the only remaining influence the uncertain memories of uncertain thoughts.

Perhaps Itachi's thinking the same thing, Kurenai wondered. She began to ask, but he roused himself before she had the chance to speak, and walked through the door, exiting the room. She shrugged, and followed him out.

As the door closed behind her, the training room was left vacant once again. The muted buzzing of the overhead lights was the only sound, and the dull, impassive colours were once again undisturbed. The room was as it had been, save for two seeds of crimson, dark and opaque, twin pools of blood left unchecked, unremembered, uncertain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've also posted an extra chapter on genjutsu, since I think a lot of the behaviour I depict here relies on some theorizing and exttrapolation that may not be obvious/may not adhere universally to everyone's expectations
> 
> Re: chapter delay. I'm in school, and writing is actually pretty hard, especially when you're tired from reading and you lack awesome cool fanfic to read. Now that summers started tho i am motivated and capable of writing again, and have the benefit of a year's worth of story planning and structuring.
> 
> Re: Kurenai's character  
> First, I'd like to remind the reader that the events of this story take place several years before the beginning of the books. For this reason, I feel comfortable with interpreting the characters a bit more flexibly. In particular, I feel like without Asuma being there to foil her, Kurenai has significantly more freedom of development. I hope you like where I take her. 
> 
> Re: genjutsu battle. It pisses me off in canon that Kurenai's whole thing is genjutsu, yet the one time she gets to really use it Itachi can see through it completely. I've written up some more thoughts about genjutsu that I'm posting shortly as an extra chapter, and I think it's worth the read, at least to make explicit the processes I am using to inform these and other important reactions.
> 
> Re: pairings. The first of many deviant pairings takes root. ItachiXKurenai, this is the world we live in now.


	7. Extra Chapter: Genjutsu

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A ...brief? discussion of the mechanics of chakra. Most of what Kurenai says is completely true, or a simplified version of the truth. Itachi's speculations are less clearly-endorsed, but do adhere to a kernel of truth. What he fails to connect here he has recognized before, and may eventually connect.

Extra Chapter: Genjutsu

 

Itachi and Kurenai walked in silence through the halls of the training facility. It was secluded, remote even from the other training grounds, in part because of its differing use, and in part because of the historic rarity of genjutsu users. Itachi himself had never set foot in it, and now hoped to never do so again.

He'd never, _never_ struggled with genjutsu. From the moment his Sharingan manifested he had had no trouble seeing through the illusions of others, and constructing illusions of his own.

With Shisui's death and the unification of their Mangekyo, Itachi had felt even more at ease. The Tsukuyomi, costly as it was, was unbeatable. Shisui's version was even stronger, undetectable and so deceptively simple to use.

Hiruzen had succumb to it, and Kakashi too, and they were better ninja than Kurenai by far. So how had it happened? Itachi had tried using the Tsukuyomi too, this time, in anticipation of Kurenai's defense, and it had seemed to be working, until suddenly it wasn't at all.

That Kurenai had been able to capture him in genjutsu after the fact wasn't nearly as surprising, since his Sharingan would have subsided when he was knocked unconscious, but that he struggled so much to escape was incomprehensible.

His experience in the field was less than most other ANBU, of course, owing to his age, but Itachi had still faced his fair share of genjutsu users, and the encounter had always been the same:

1\. The enemy uses a genjutsu on Itachi.  
2\. His Sharingan activate automatically when they perceive the foreign chakra.  
3\. With his Sharingan active, Itachi is able to understand the jutsu to such a degree that its effects become imperceptible, a redundant detail of the jutsu.  
4\. Itachi proceeds to ignore the genjutsu, and kills the enemy.

"Kurenai is the anomaly," Itachi thought, "but I can't understand her just from reflection. I need to find out more." Even the Jutsu Path, informative though it was, had been so esoteric that Itachi struggled to make any sense of the phenomenon. As if in defeat, he decided to voice his concerns.

"How did you escape?" he asked bluntly, feeling slightly embarrassed to even mention it, and so of course, _furious_ that he'd be embarrassed at all.

"Well there wasn't much to escape from, little weasel," Kurenai said lightly. Itachi was _sure_ she was smirking and not going to indulge it for even a second if he could manage it.

"You snuck your way past my defenses, somehow," she continued, "and I'll admit, I was surprised, but after that initial assault you were unable to make it past again, and I was free to figure out what was going on and then break the jutsu. Easy as that."

"What do you mean I didn't make it past again? I saw your barrier go up with my Sharingan, and I..." Itachi stopped himself before he revealed too many clan secrets, then continued, "Well, anyway, it shouldn't have been a problem."

"Well, anyway, it seems like it was," Kurenai replied, too cheerily, "a bit better than your shitty face illusion, but still...how can I say this? Amateurish."

Kurenai chuckled at this last phrase, and Itachi couldn't control himself, his Uchiha pride getting the better of him. He spun around to face Kurenai, then sat down hard, on the ground.

By now the two of them had left the facility, and were now walking on the road back to Konoha proper. Itachi's display was attracting some odd looks from the few civilians that lived this far from the city center.

"Oi oi!" Kurenai said, noticing their incredulity, and gesturing at Itachi impatiently, "what is this? Are you pouting? Is the great Itachi Uchiha pouting? Is this your plan to become Hokage, hm? Whine like a sad puppy?"

"I am not pouting," Itachi said, pouting, "and I'll have you know that my plan is excellent. Now tell me what exactly is so amateurish about my technique. My pride demands it."

"Tch," Kurenai said, rolling her eyes, but sitting down anyway, "Alright. I'll give you the education you so obviously lack, but in exchange you're going to have to tell me all about this excellent plan of yours. Now, where to begin?"

~~~~~~

First, we should distinguish between what you were doing, an illusion, and what I would call genjutsu. An illusion does not directly affect the enemy's senses, rather, it distorts the environment around you using chakra. Think of it as the difference between mist and a mirage.

Now illusions in general can still be very powerful, especially as they integrate ambient chakra and interfere with other jutsu, but they have two main flaws.

First off, they are only as strong as you make them. In your case, Uchiha, that was very strong indeed. I doubt many other ninja here could produce a chakra pulse strong enough to disrupt it. The problem is that _any_ chakra interference will work, including enemy ninjutsu. Even insufficiently powerful jutsu will weaken the illusion if not compensated for.

Secondly, and more importantly, illusions are easily disrupted. This can be through either interference or dissonance, meaning essentially an identical but opposite illusion, either in terms of its chakra frequency or its actual appearance. If your illusion is making everything darker, and mine is making everything brighter...well they'll just cancel out.

Now, these are flaws shared by all of genjutsu as well, but since illusions are indirect, meaning they exert no active influence over the enemy, they are far easier to respond to and detect.

~~~~

"Wait," Itachi said, interrupting, "how can illusions be detected? My Sharingan can see through them of course, and I assume the Byakugan has similar abilities, but how were you able to?"

"Good question."

~~~~

Now obviously I'm not going to lecture you about how the Sharingan works, but it is still important to note that the Byakugan functions differently. In particular, instead of the ability to store and "see" ambient chakra, the Byakugan is merely highly sensitive to its flow. In general this is most pronounced in a ninja's body, and more obvious still when a jutsu is being performed.

This is how the Byakugan can detect genjutsu and illusion. Not by seeing through it, but by detecting the change in chakra flow, either in a ninja's body, or, less easily, in the environment.

As for us unfortunate ninja without Kekkai Genkai, detection is much harder. Sensor types, like Inoichi, simply have the chakra control and mental stamina necessary to project a weak field of their own chakra out from their bodies. When that field meets your illusion, if the field's owner is paying attention, they will detect a disturbance. At that point, a truly skilled sensor would be able to disrupt the illusion using their own field, or at least challenge you to adapt it.

I'm a bit of a special case when it comes to this, however, since my specialty is in genjutsu, not sensor work. I have...I guess you can think of them as barriers, but it's really more like a hyper-concentrated chakra field blocking my senses at all times, which allow me to detect foreign chakra as I would normally perceive light or sound. Not in a meaningful descriptive sense, really, just as an alarm.

Thanks to these, when my eyes saw your illusion, my chakra defense also, by the nature of light and chakra, "felt" your chakra, and I knew something was up. Then, since your illusion was so poorly-done, I could work backwards to deconstruct it, adapting my barrier slightly to keep it out entirely. This, I suspect, is beyond the reach of most other ninja in this village. Ibiki probably can do it better than me, actually, but he's...

~~~~

"He's a monster," Itachi said, emotionless, "and completely emotionless. It's somewhat off-putting."

Kurenai refrained from commenting.

"So then what separates illusion from genjutsu?"

~~~~

I mentioned it before, but the main difference is the active vs passive nature of the two. I'll say here that some techniques really do blur the line between these, using genjutsu to increase the strength of an illusion, or an illusion as a vehicle to deliver genjutsu, but those are edge cases. In general, illusions are seen, and genjutsu are shown.

Whereas one can simply "place" an illusion anywhere in space, a genjutsu will be ineffectual unless directly imposed onto not only the opponent's senses, but the chakra networks underneath as well. Taste and smell tend to be inconvenient, a touch based genjutsu requires dangerous close-quarters combat, and sound based genjutsu are likely to suffer from background interference, so most genjutsu tend to be visual.

That means projecting the jutsu directly onto your opponent's senses, which often requires eye contact to be properly aligned, and then furthermore infiltrating their chakra network with your own. The most obvious example of this is the Yamanaka Clan's techniques, but those are a great deal more powerful and nuanced then classical genjutsu, so don't get too attached to them as a model. The gist is that _your_ chakra needs to get to _their_ chakra.

Once your chakra has infiltrated the enemy's, you gain some measure of control over what they perceive. For a shallow infiltration, this tends to give you control over things like colour, orientation, focus, brightness, distance, et cetera, but the deeper you go the more abstract your control becomes.

The Hell-Viewing Technique, for example, is a very weak genjutsu, but it penetrates deeply enough to let the user simply access the enemy's brain for effect. In particular, the requested effect is "whatever would make this particular imagery seem scariest." The stronger (i.e. more chakra dense) the technique, the more you can manipulate at once, and the less you need to rely on real, visual stimuli. You are in essence forcing their eyes to see the scariest possible interpretation of what they would see normally, if you weren't manipulating them. 

The subtle part of genjutsu, however, is that if detected early on it very quickly loses its leverage. You can only project so much of your own chakra into an enemy, and their chakra is  _in them_ so if they realize you've infiltrated their system, they can mostly just flush you out. The trick is to slip in undetected, and then strike with such force and reach that they don't have the time or attention to devote to ousting your chakra.

This chakra infiltration, I suspect, is where your Sharingan comes into play. When an enemy tries to use genjutsu, it must pass through your Sharingan which is, I imagine, fairly obvious to you. Furthermore, the Sharingan is certainly more chakra dense that a normal eye would be, making it easier for you to limit that point of entry. 

~~~~

"That all seems broadly similar to my experience," Itachi said, nodding. A thought struck him, and he seemed conflicted for a moment, but then continued to speak.

"What you're saying makes sense, especially given what I know about the Sharingan's inner workings...in particular, the Sharingan is able to project the user's chakra outside of them without forming a chakra bridge in between the user and target. In it's least advanced form, this feels like being able to simply "read" the enemy's movements, but really, it is being able to project your field onto an enemy's, and sense how your own field changes, even subconsciously reacting to and copying those changes for yourself.

I would guess then that our strength in genjutsu comes mostly from the ability to project a constant field that is ultra-sensitive to the enemy's reactions."

"I...suppose so, yes," Kurenai said, a little shocked. To go from so little knowledge to already making new insights into genjutsu was...well it was a little unfair, in her opinion. She began to regret giving Itachi anything other than one of her old textbooks.

"Then that would explain how those work as well," Itachi said, almost to himself, "not modelling the fear response, but really activating it directly. And the other, could it affect decision-making? Reasoning? Hm..."

"What do you know about brains?" Itachi said suddenly, looking up at Kurenai, eyes intent.

"Um? Not much?" she replied, quizzically. This kid...what the hell had she walked into here?

"Hn." Itachi frowned, lost in thought again, once again seemingly unaware of his surroundings.

They sat across from each other in silence, leaves rustling in the faint, evening wind. They were alone, now, on this distant road, the sun having dipped below the horizon, and the the twilight giving way to familiar darkness.

"Ok," he said, after what seemed like an eternity, "I think I understand what happened. You really didn't even need to think about blocking me, right? You said your barriers managed it on their own?"

"Yes, that's how it seemed," Kurenai replied, "So?"

"Well if the majority of your chakra was being spent internally, then it would make sense that my Sharingan didn't pick up on it, since I can't see your brain." An uncomfortable pause. "And it felt like I was making progress, but maybe that was just me copying your barriers subconsciously, and not even seeing my own progress?"

"Hn!" Itachi said, jumping to his feet. Kurenai, a ninja, wasn't startled _per se_ , but this change from asshole-Uchiha to genjutsu nerd, alarming as it was, was still impossible not to find endearing. She got to her feet too, standing a bit above him. He'd long since dropped the illusion over his eyes, and she could see them clearly. Ragged, strained, but burning with passion. 

Itachi was barely looking at her as he spoke, his stony expression juxtaposed with those wild eyes. "So will you show me that technique? Wait, never mind, I'll just use my Sharingan and copy it. Wait, I should actually learn it though. Wait-"

Kurenai rolled her eyes and walked by him, still deliberating out loud on how to best learn genjutsu, and began walking back towards the village. Itachi noticed eventually, and ran after her, protesting the whole time, demanding to be taught more genjutsu, looking for all the world like a regular, Uchiha brat.

She smiled, a brief, betrayal smile, before turning to lecture him, chastising his idiot Uchiha ways and total recklessness, and so on.

Despite herself, Kurenai was forced to admit, there was something admirable in Itachi Uchiha. Potential. Nothing major, nor obvious, only a seed perhaps, but something worth looking into. She found herself, for the first time in a long time, feeling genuinely curious. 

They walked back to the village together, taking their time, talking, arguing, theorizing the whole way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guess this preserves the plot? Next chapter will take place after they arrive in Konoha proper, but beyond KurenaiXItachi Interaction there's nothing of true plot significance here.


End file.
